Download Pregnancy as a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs and explore the findings.
This report presents the preliminary findings of a research study seeking to document all charges of pregnancy criminalization in the country in the three years after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Pregnancy As a Crime covers the first year after Dobbs, from June 24, 2022 to June 23, 2023.
In the first year after Dobbs, at least 210 people faced criminal charges for conduct associated with their pregnancy, pregnancy loss, or birth. In one sense, this is nothing new. Pregnancy Justice has documented over 1,800 cases of pregnancy-related charges between 1973 and the Dobbs decision.
Yet the 210 prosecutions initiated in this one-year period represent a high-water mark — the largest single-year number since researchers began tracking these cases. Even so, the 210 prosecutions represent an undercount of cases. In fact, the research team continues to uncover additional cases initiated during this period and will add them to the dataset as part of the comprehensive three-year report published at the end of the study.
Executive Summary
Introduction
Pregnancy Criminalization & Fetal Personhood
Study Definition, Parameters & Methodology
Preliminary Findings
Emerging Threats
Recommendations
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
Explore our prior report, The Rise of Pregnancy Criminalization