This is an adapted excerpt from the June 8 episode of “Velshi.”
We may have just entered the most dangerous chapter of the post-Roe era to date. With new, but little-noticed, developments over recent days, it’s apparent that not only are women under greater threat of being criminalized for their pregnancies, but the health and lives of pregnant women are more endangered now than at any time since the Dobbs decision was handed down.
The health and lives of pregnant women are more endangered now than at any time since the Dobbs decision was handed down.
Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision, draconian abortion bans have been enacted in more than a dozen states. We have seen the deadly impact of those bans. In Georgia, Amber Thurman died of sepsis after not receiving an abortion procedure, known as dilation and curettage, that could have saved her life. Also in Georgia, Candi Miller died after she was too afraid to seek medical care because of the state’s abortion ban.
In Texas, Josseli Barnica, Porsha Ngumezi and Nevaeh Crain all died after being denied proper care following miscarriages. And in the same state, Kylie Thurman lost part of her reproductive system after being turned away from a Texas hospital with an ectopic pregnancy. These are just some of the cases we know about.
To put it quite simply: Abortion is health care, emergency abortion is emergency health care — and without it, women die.
Despite that fact, last week the Trump administration revoked guidance issued by the Biden administration that directed hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women regardless of a state’s abortion laws.
So why would the Trump administration want to come after emergency abortions specifically? The ones where, if you don’t get them, you could die? Well, University of California, Davis law professor Mary Ziegler has a theory. She notes that the new guidance from the Trump administration does not just revoke the Biden-era guidance on providing emergency abortions, it also suggests that hospitals are required to protect the health of a pregnant woman’s “unborn child.”
This, Ziegler suggests, hints at a broader anti-abortion strategy. As she writes in a new piece for MSNBC: “In the longer term, the end of the Biden-era guidance may be the tip of the sword further carving up abortion protections, even in states where that right is still protected.”
So not only is it dangerous to experience a pregnancy complication in the wrong state, it’s likely to get more complicated even if you live in a “safe” state.
But that is not even the end of the alarming trends in anti-abortion zealotry. Miscarriage is the most common pregnancy complication in America, affecting up to 1 in 5 pregnancies, according to the National Institutes of Health. And yet, since Dobbs was handed down, we have seen case after case of this common medical condition becoming a criminal investigation.
Mallori Patrice Strait spent five months in police custody after miscarrying in a public bathroom in Texas. Those charges were dropped, and an autopsy determined she had naturally miscarried a nonviable fetus.
Brittany Watts was arrested on felony corpse abuse charges in Ohio, for her miscarriage, which happened at home after she had been to a hospital with severe bleeding and was told her pregnancy was not viable. The charges against her were eventually dropped.
In Georgia, Selena Maria Chandler-Scott had a miscarriage and was arrested for disposing of the fetal tissue. Those charges were also dropped.
In South Carolina, Amari Marsh was accused of murder after losing her pregnancy. She was held in jail without bond for 22 days, ultimately released on house arrest with an ankle monitor. Thirteen months later, she was cleared by a grand jury.
Not only is it dangerous to experience a pregnancy complication in the wrong state, it’s likely to get more complicated even if you live in a “safe” state.
If you’re not following these stories closely, it might be tempting to think of each as a one-off: a bad arrest or a wrong judgment call. But make no mistake, this is systematic criminalization of women’s bodies — and they are saying it out loud.
Tom Truman, a prosecutor for Raleigh County, West Virginia, said that while he would be unwilling to charge a woman for her miscarriage, other prosecuting attorneys in the state have discussed the possibility. Speaking to a local news outlet, Truman advised that if women who miscarry want to avoid arrest, they should call authorities to tell them that their pregnancy has ended.
“Call your doctor. Call law enforcement, or 911, and just say, ‘I miscarried. I want you to know,’” Truman said. “‘Isn’t there a difference between somebody that’s eight months pregnant and nine weeks pregnant?’ … Those are going to be decisions that are going to have to be parsed out.”
Strict abortion bans could turn a common medical outcome, one that only happens to pregnant women, into a matter for the police. The idea is that you are supposed to call 911 if you have a miscarriage at home so that it can be investigated as a crime. This is America in 2025.