Criminalizing Pregnancy: A Record Number of Women Were Prosecuted the Year After Dobbs

June 25, 2025

(Mother Jones) – They were targeted for substance use, miscarriages, and stillbirths, largely driven by fetal personhood laws.

The Dobbs decision didn’t just unleash a raft of laws restricting and banning abortion—it also seems to have made authorities more skeptical of women whose pregnancies end prematurely for reasons that have nothing to do with abortion. “Most of the time, we don’t know why a pregnancy or infant demise happened,” says Wendy Bach, a law professor at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, who co-authored the report. “But in this post-Dobbs era, pregnancy loss is extremely suspicious. It can lead to criminal investigation, criminal charges, incarceration, and family separation.” (Read More)