“Lawmakers in Idaho, Indiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas have introduced or are working to introduce bills to allow homicide charges to be brought against people suspected of having an abortion. . .”
Since the 2022 Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Republican state legislators have drafted laws to limit the rights of women and girls to make decisions about their own pregnancies. See Jessica Valenti’s substack, ‘Abortion Every Day’ for ongoing coverage of these issues.
Republicans want to make embryos and fetuses full legal human beings under the law by defining personhood as beginning “from the moment of conception.” Currently, 17 states have established fetal personhood by law or judicial decision to apply to criminal law or both criminal and civil laws.
According to Pregnancy Justice, ‘Fetal personhood laws grant fetuses — and in some cases embryos, and fertilized eggs — the same legal rights and status given to born people, such as the right to life. When fetal personhood is fully actualized, it fundamentally changes the legal rights and status of all pregnant people, opening up the door to criminalization, surveillance, and obstetric violence.’
The laws have resulted in women being criminally charged for actions that might harm their pregnancies, said Lourdes Rivera, president of Pregnancy Justice. Pregnant women are being charged, often for substance use, and often during pregnancies. Most of the cases occurred in a handful of Southern states — including Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee — that have expanded their definitions of child abuse to include fetuses, fertilized eggs and embryos.
Lawmakers in Idaho, Indiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas have introduced or are working to introduce bills to allow homicide charges to be brought against people suspected of having an abortion. (The bills in Oklahoma and North Dakota failed.) But Idaho, Indiana, South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas all have the death penalty for homicide.
Abortion could then be punishable by the death penalty! This could include the banning of IUDs because they may in some cases allow conception, (but usually not pregnancy) to occur. Ironically, conservative, ‘pro-life’ couples who use IVF to get pregnant could lose the right because IVF clinics often destroy some fertilized eggs. A bill to allow claiming fetuses as dependents on people’s taxes is a PR move to get people’s acceptance of the idea of fetal personhood.
More states are moving toward ‘fetal personhood’ bills. For example, Montana voters approved by 58% a state constitutional amendment for abortion rights. Now lawmakers are moving to place a “personhood upon conception” amendment on the ballot in 2026.
Rebecca Kluchin, a history professor at California State University, Sacramento, who is writing a book on the history of efforts to establish fetal personhood in the U.S., said one goal is to get a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. We are living in a reactionary environment where lawmakers are saying, “Let’s try it,” she said. “If one of them gets it right, then others can pass identical laws.” “When a pregnant person’s rights conflict with fetal rights,” Kluchin said, “fetal rights tend to trump them.”
The forces behind these laws are extremely powerful in Republican politics largely because they are funded by millionaires and billionaires and multimillion dollar public relations firms, think tanks, and the like. They are opposed by non-profit grassroots organizations that represent us — ordinary working-class people harmed by these policies.
I believe the intent of these laws is to weaken the political power of women who can be a formidable force when set in motion! The only way we can succeed in regaining our rights is to organize because that’s OUR power source.
Karel Riley works with the People’s Tribune, and its bilingual sister publication, Tribuno del Pueblo, as a writer and contributor on human rights and women’s issues. “I’ve been a feminist since early adulthood. As a clerical worker, I joined a union drive with AFSCME seeking comparable wages to men for female-dominated jobs, and we were partially successful. In the mid-80’s our union participated in the historic Hormel strike in Minnesota. Later, I joined others in support of a local welfare rights organization,” she says.
