More than 200 women faced pregnancy related criminal charges in the year after US abortion law was overturned
BMJ 2024; 386 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2136 (Published 30 September 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;386:q2136
- Janice Hopkins Tanne
- New York
More than 200 women faced criminal charges after pregnancy loss, abortion, or birth in the year after the US Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion, analysis has found.12
The Pregnancy Justice organisation reported that at least 210 women faced criminal charges from 24 June 2022 (when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade) to 23 June 2023. The number is the highest since it began tracking the matter in 1973, but is likely an undercount.
Most cases occurred in states that had laws recognising “fetal personhood,” the belief that life begins at conception and the embryo or fetus has full …
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