In the past few weeks new abortion bans have been passed in Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, with Louisiana poised to pass one soon. These laws not only outlaw abortion before most people know they’re pregnant, but also go further in criminalizing abortion than any current law on the books. Based on the language in these laws it’s possible for a woman (or nonbinary person or trans man) to be charged with murder, not only for getting an abortion but for having a miscarriage if doctors claim she caused it herself.
As Jennifer Wright wrote in Harper’s Bazaar, many women have already faced criminal charges for miscarrying if the state deemed it was her fault. This is unfortunately not an outlandish outcome of extreme abortion bans.
The Georgia law is particularly extreme in that its language doesn’t exempt women who seek illegal abortions from prosecution, while earlier laws have mostly only applied criminal charges to doctors performing illegal abortions. According to Marc Joseph Stern, the language could even bring conspiracy charges against people, and those who help them, who seek legal abortions…
