New report warns of rise in pregnancy criminalization in Post-Roe America

In fact, most prosecutions documented in the report did not actually involve abortion: Of the 200 cases, only one was prosecuted under a law specifically meant to criminalize abortion. The others involved statutes related to child abuse, neglect or endangerment, which treat an embryo or fetus as a person with legal rights that compete with those of the pregnant person. The report notes that prosecutors often don't need to prove that any actual harm occurred to the fetus, they merely have to demonstrate that a pregnant woman posed some "risk" to her pregnancy. 

That includes the case of Amari Marsh, a 23-year-old South Carolina woman who miscarried in June 2023. After miscarrying, she was arrested and charged with "murder/homicide by child abuse." Marsh spent 22 days in jail before being placed under house arrest. She faced 20 years in prison. It was more than a year later that she was finally cleared by a grand jury and told that her case would not proceed to trial. 

And that is what happens when you criminalize abortion: You criminalize pregnant women. When the state has a controlling stake in every pregnant woman's body, every miscarriage is a potential prosecution. …

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/abortion-criminalizing-womens-health-care-dobbs-rcna175332