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Contact: media@pregnancyjusticeus.org

NEW YORK — Today, Pregnancy Justice released “After Pregnancy Loss,” a new report identifying and analyzing dozens of criminal laws across the country — many of them centuries-old — that govern how people navigate the aftermath of their miscarriages or stillbirth. The report also equips civil rights and criminal defense attorneys with the tools to fight these prosecutions and identifies opportunities for policy reform. 

Many of these laws, such as the crime of “concealing a birth,” date back to the 1600s and were enacted as a way to criminalize unwed women who were thought to be more likely to hide and end their pregnancies or murder their newborns for fear of facing intense societal shame and repercussions. In recent years, prosecutors have deployed these laws to prosecute women for their behavior after experiencing a pregnancy loss, from burying remains to miscarrying on a toilet to placing remains in a bag and then a trash receptacle. Post-Dobbs, when pregnancy loss is increasingly treated as a suspicious event, these laws are being used more frequently to target women who experience pregnancy loss or self-manage an abortion. 

“Postpartum people are being investigated and jailed while their mugshots are plastered across the news as they endure a deeply private and personal experience,” said Pregnancy Justice Senior Policy Counsel and report author Kulsoom Ijaz. “Although many of these cases are eventually dropped, the damage can’t be undone. We must challenge these prosecutions and repeal these harmful criminal laws because no one should be forced to navigate this complex legal terrain – especially not while suffering through the shock and grief of pregnancy loss.” 

Pregnancy Justice has identified 58 prosecutions between 2006 and 2024 connected to how people navigated the aftermath of pregnancy loss, including the handling of remains from a miscarriage or stillbirth. Because of the difficulty in identifying cases and accessing court records, that number is an undercount. 

Key report findings include: 

  • 18 states have laws that criminalize the non-reporting of pregnancy loss remains.  
  • 10 states have laws that criminalize the transportation of pregnancy loss remains.  
  • 19 states have laws that criminalize the disposal of pregnancy loss remains or classify these as “abuse of a corpse.”   
  • 15 states have laws that criminalize the “concealment” of pregnancy loss remains.
    • At least 3 of these states have laws that criminalize the “concealment” of live births or stillbirths delivered out of wedlock.  
  • 2 states have laws on the books that criminalize the “abandonment” of pregnancy loss remains.  
  • 1 state has laws that criminalize the “possession” of pregnancy loss remains. 

Several states have recently passed laws or constitutional amendments that protect against the prosecution of people in the aftermath of their pregnancy loss. For example, reproductive freedom amendments have language that protect against criminalization. And Washington State, through its Dignity in Pregnancy Loss Act of 2025, is the only state to explicitly repeal legal provisions that criminalize pregnancy loss.

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Pregnancy Justice advances and defends the rights of pregnant people, no matter if they give birth, experience a pregnancy loss, or have an abortion. No one should lose their rights because of pregnancy.