No one should have to fear arrest or jail time for abortion or miscarriage

understanding to disrupt: the pregnancy to prison pipeline

I call all of you, if you see these connections, whatever piece of it you’re working on…to work toward a society where compelling people to give birth, where punishing people for pregnancy, criminalizing pregnancy, where forced family separation as a means of meeting human needs would be unimaginable.

Dorothy Roberts

criminalization refers to

Pregnancy criminalization is when someone is punished by the legal system because of their pregnancy. This could mean being arrested for something related to the pregnancy. Or getting harsher rules for bail, sentencing, or probation just because they became pregnant while facing another charge. 

Criminalization also means that pregnant people’s bodies are treated in a special and unfair way. Many parts of society act like part of the prison industrial complex (PIC)—the system of laws, courts, and prisons that work together to control and punish people.” 

what is pregnancy criminalization?

but it’s more than

legislators passing and cops enforcing criminal laws by punishing people. It is a political process that creates groups of inherently criminalized “others” for whom rights do not exist in reality because they are framed as threats that must be controlled, punished, and removed.

In this country, the people who are most impacted by criminalization are BIPOC, LGBTQ+ (especially trans people), immigrants, incarcerated people, and poor people. These are often individuals whose reproductive autonomy has already been compromised by the state in numerous ways before they experience pregnancy criminalization.

criminalization obstructs reproductive justice by

  • Limiting and controlling bodily autonomy

  • Forcing people to have children

  • Forcing people not to have children

  • Making it impossible for people to create and live in safe and sustainable communities

the Pregnancy to Prison pipeline

Click to learn how criminalization cuts across every pregnancy experience.