Report counts 902 pregnancy-related prosecutions in three years after Dobbs

Prosecutors initiated at least 902 criminal cases over three years charging people with crimes related to their pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to an October 2026 data update from the nonprofit Pregnancy Justice. The cases ran from June 2022 to June 2025, the period covering the first three years after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the group said.

The interim update comes from the Pregnancy Prosecutions Tracking Study, which Pregnancy Justice co-leads with principal investigators Wendy A. Bach and Madalyn K. Wasilczuk and researcher Kendra Hutchens. It builds on a 2024 report and a 2025 update, the group said. Truthout also reported on the findings.

Where the cases occurred

Pregnancy Justice said prosecutors brought cases in 23 states. Most of the reported cases were in South Carolina, with 381, followed by Oklahoma, with 222, and Alabama, with 204. The group said data collection is continuing.

The charges

The 902 defendants faced 955 charges in total, the report said. Of those, 876 asserted some form of child abuse, neglect or endangerment. Others included 36 homicide charges, 11 drug-related charges and one abortion-related charge.

Prosecutors overwhelmingly used statutes that do not require proof that the pregnant person harmed a fetus or infant, according to the report. In 854 of the 955 charges, proof of harm was not required.

What prosecutors alleged

Nearly all of the cases alleged substance use during pregnancy, the report said, with 871 cases including that allegation. In 550 cases, substance use was the only allegation. The most commonly alleged substance was methamphetamine, which appeared in 434 cases, followed by cannabis and amphetamines other than methamphetamine, each in 313 cases, and fentanyl in 181 cases.

Prosecutors or police argued that a failure to obtain prenatal care was evidence of a crime in 77 of the 902 cases, according to the report. Thirteen cases included allegations about obtaining, attempting or researching an abortion. The report said that in those cases it was not always clear how the state intended to use that evidence.

Who was charged

Where court files recorded race and ethnicity, 599 of the 902 people were reported as white, 160 as Black, 34 as Indigenous American and 28 as Hispanic or Latino, the report said. For 78 people, no information was reported. Pregnancy Justice noted that race and ethnicity data in court, police and jail records are often unreliable, particularly for Hispanic and Native American identity. The report said most cases involved people with low incomes, which it defined as receiving court-appointed counsel, a means-tested benefit such as Medicaid or SNAP, or experiencing homelessness.

Most cases, 717 of 902, involved a live birth. Seventy involved a fetal or infant death, which the report said often included allegations that a defendant committed acts during pregnancy that led to a stillbirth, miscarriage or a newborn’s death.

Health care and child welfare systems

Pregnancy Justice said the medical system was involved in 700 of the cases, meaning information was obtained or disclosed in a medical setting, a category that includes emergency medical services. The family policing system, which the report uses to refer to child welfare agencies, was involved in 468 cases. The group said both figures are likely undercounts.

Method and limits

The researchers identified cases through intake requests to Pregnancy Justice, outreach, web and media searches, and records requests, according to the report. A case was counted only if researchers had the defendant’s name, the date the case began, and the county and state, and if the charging document confirmed the case was a pregnancy-related prosecution under the study’s definition.

The report states that its sources are court files and police reports, which describe what police and prosecutors alleged and are not proof of what occurred. It also says all data in the update should be considered provisional and subject to change.

Truthout reported that Pregnancy Justice president Lourdes A. Rivera said the criminalization of pregnancy is not a distant or hypothetical consequence of abortion bans and is already happening.