More than 200 women have been charged with crimes over their pregnancies, miscarriages or abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to end a pregnancy. Six states, Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas, accounted for the majority of the prosecutions.
However, almost none of the prosecutions documented by researchers were brought under state abortion laws. Instead, researchers found that law enforcement most often charged pregnant women with crimes such as child neglect or endangerment, interpreting the definition of "child" to include a fetus. In doing so, authorities relied on a legal concept called fetal personhood — the idea that a fetus, embryo or fertilized egg has the same legal rights as a person who has been born.
"If we focus only on abortion laws, we miss a crucial part of the picture in the fact that pregnant individuals are being criminalized for allegedly endangering their own pregnancies, for pregnancy loss and, in some cases, for conduct related to abortion," Rivera said. "What's driving pregnancy criminalization is the expansion of fetal personhood."
Ask them and they may tell you that it's not really about abortion, it's about women and families. And they'll think they won the argument with that admission.
Check Vote.org, wherever you are in the U.S. to make sure you're registered to vote and will get to cast one, then vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.