An ocean of uncertainty surrounds dozens of new state-level abortion bans and how they’ll be enforced following last month’s U.S. Supreme Court opinion that overturned Roe v Wade.
Could a pregnant person be arrested for having a miscarriage? A still birth? Could a district attorney prosecute someone who drove out of state to get an abortion? What about self-managing an abortion with pills received in the mail?
State officials and the legal system are still sorting it out, even as doctors and legal experts and legislators weigh in.
But the reality is that states don’t need abortion bans to prosecute pregnant people for harm caused to a fetus – they’ve been doing it for years.