is Miscarriage illegal?

Of course it is not illegal to have a miscarriage. But, increasingly, women like Selena Chandler-Scott who miscarry have been harassed, suspected of, and sometimes charged with crimes like “abuse of a corpse,” “concealing a dead body,” or “abandoning a dead body.” (As I say in Selena’s story, there are not, yet, any laws concerning how women must dispose of miscarriages, although there are regulations for how medical facilities must do so.) In this square, I wanted to convey my anger at how Selena was humiliated with a published mugshot during this process. The image of the mugshot fortuitously evokes the human profile that appears on shooting targets; women are indeed being targeted and, unsurprisingly, in most of the cases I know of, the women are Black. The treatment of women like Selena stems from and contributes to a climate of distrust and suspicion concerning women and pregnancy. Organizations like Pregnancy Justice refer to this climate as the “criminalization of pregnancy.” They report that the first year after the Dobbs decision featured the “highest number of pregnancy-related prosecutions documented in a single year.” Ultimately, the harassment of these women also stokes arguments for “fetal personhood” and “equal protection” laws because they encourage viewing fetuses as persons, which is what some anti-abortion activists have as their goal. “Fetal personhood” and “equal protection” laws would grant fetuses (even embryos, potentially) the same rights and protections as any person, thus paving the way for charging women who terminate pregnancies with homicide. As of June 2025, “equal protection” bills had been introduced in over a dozen states. In Texas, Republicans made “equal protection” a platform of their party.