Criminalization of abortion already occurs even ostensibly with the protections of—defined by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as “the punishing or penalizing of individuals for actions that are interpreted as harmful to their own pregnancies, including enforcement of laws that punish actions during pregnancy that would not otherwise be criminal or punishable.”
Incarceration is one of many dangerous ways the government exerts control over pregnant people. The recent prosecution and conviction of Brittney Poolaw provides a chilling example: The mere allegation that the teen’s drug use contributed to miscarriage led to her arrest for first-degree manslaughter; she was jailed for a year and a half before trial, unable to afford $20,000 bail, and then sentenced to four years in prison.
The group National Advocates for Pregnant Women reported on a client who wanted a vaginal birth and was taken intohad her legs strapped together, and was forced to undergo a C-section—because doctors believed that would be safer for the fetus and a federal court ruled that her rights were secondary to the state’s interest in preserving the life of the fetus.
Of course, this is the very rationale that undergirds all abortion restrictions. Allowing the government to strip away liberty based on pregnancy status opens the door to expansive public intrusions in personal decisions throughout pregnancy and childbirth.was decided in 1973, people have been subjected to arrest and prosecution for miscarriage, stillbirth, or attempting to end their own pregnancy.
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