Anti-abortion lawmakers and activists did not stop when Roe v. Wade fell. They pressed ahead to ever more violent frontiers. In South Carolina this week, the legislature is considering a bill more extreme than the state’s already extreme abortion ban. The so-called “Unborn Child Protection Act” could be used to prosecute abortion as equivalent to “the homicide of a person who had been born alive.” An earlier version of the act would have made an abortion punishable by life in prison or execution. Despite some anti-abortion activists’ previous claims that they would never support prosecuting people for having an abortion, lawmakers in at least 12 states have now introduced such laws.

Reproductive rights and justice leaders had warned that after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court decision that demolished Roe, anti-abortion activists would be emboldened to demand such prosecutions. These warnings were well founded. As new research released Tuesday by the advocacy organization Pregnancy Justice reveals, over the two years following the decision, hundreds of people were prosecuted for their pregnancy outcomes. The group identified more than 400 cases in which prosecutors charged a person for crimes related to their pregnancy, pregnancy loss, or birth. Using media reports, public records, and direct information provided to the group, the report offers a snapshot of who has been charged in this new legal environment. The most common charges, by far, were related to child abuse, neglect, and endangerment. In all, among 412 defendants (some of whom faced multiple charges), 399 charges alleged substance use during pregnancy; 29 alleged lack of prenatal care; and nine allegations involved obtaining, attempting, or researching an abortion. More than half of those charged were white. The vast majority of all charged were........

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