From the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 until Dobbs decision in 2022, there were more than 1,800 cases across the country in which law enforcement, prosecutors, healthcare workers, family regulation workers, and judges have deprived pregnant people of their constitutional right under the guise of protecting “unborn life.” A recent report documents how the growing popularity of the concept of “fetal personhood” in anti-abortion rhetoric and the reliance on substance use allegations are being used to charge pregnant people with criminal child neglect or endangerment, contributing to the rise in pregnancy criminalization since 2006. Even before Dobbs, people have been increasingly criminalized for their pregnancies, regardless of birth outcome. Join our experts as they discuss the who and why birthing people are being criminalized, the impact of birth people and their communities, and access to maternal healthcare.
This presentation is the fourth installment in a multi-part In Conversation Series focused on the ABA's Reproductive Rights Initiative.
- Part 1 | What Just Happened? Unpacking the Recent SCOTUS Decisions
- Part 2 | Kahoʻohanohano v. State of Hawaiʻi: Protecting Access to Safe, Equitable, and Culturally Informed Midwifery Care
- Part 3 | Reproductive Coercion and Survivor’s Lived Experiences in a Post-Dobbs World
- Part 4 | Criminalizing Birthing Outcomes in a Post-Dobbs World
- Part 5 | Combating Originalism in State Courts
Co-Sponsors: ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, Center for Reproductive Rights, Santa Clara County Bar Association’s Women Lawyers Section
Resources
- Unpacking Fetal Personhood: The Radical Tool That Undermines Reproductive Justice | Pregnancy Justice
September 2024 - Pregnancy As a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs | Pregnancy Justice
September 2024 | By Wendy A. Bach and Madalyn K. Wasilczuk - Medical Professional Reports and Child Welfare System Infant Investigations: An Analysis of National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System Data | Health Equity
By Frank Edwards, Sarah C.M. Roberts,2Kathleen S. Kenny, Mical Raz, Matty Lichtenstein, and Mishka Terplan - Test or Talk Empiric Bias and Epistemic Injustice
By Mishka Terplan, MD, MPH - Stopping Criminalization at the Bedside | The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
By Wendy A. Bach and Mishka Terplan