Goodwin, Michele. 2020. Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 9781139343244

While the frenzied calls of Trump rally goers during the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns to jail Hilary Clinton – “lock her up, lock her up!” – was never more than a perverse form of catharsis, the passage of so-called fetal protection laws throughout the United States in the last two decades really has resulted in the incarceration of hundreds of women, especially indigent women of color. At present, at least thirty-eight states have such laws, and while some state laws were originally intended to protect pregnant women – who are at higher risk of domestic violence – such laws are increasingly used to prosecute rather than protect them. Indeed, between 2006 and 2020, according to the Center for Public Integrity’s website[i], more than 1,300 women have either been prosecuted for fetal crimes or have been subject to involuntary medical interventions. Of these, most are in the South and nearly one-half have occurred in Alabama alone. 

Two trends, as Goodwin shows, undergird the expansion of these laws. The first is the tendency to treat fetuses and even embryos as children. This is best exemplified by a recent Georgia adoption law that declares that embryos have “rights and responsibilities” under state law. The second is the tendency to assume that a woman has complete control over the outcome of a pregnancy, or, as one South Carolina court held, “absent depraved conduct on the part of pregnant women, stillbirths do not occur and that all pregnancies produce healthy babies (42)”. While the first tendency is rooted in religious dogma or belief, and, therefore, cannot be disproven, the second one clearly can be as there are many medical, social and environmental causes that can and do lead to miscarriage, and many cases in which this outcome cannot be determined.

A major of focus of Policing the Womb is on the impact that fetal protection laws have on the fiduciary relationship between patients and their doctors or other health care providers. Thanks to TV court dramas, most Americans are likely aware that communication between lawyers and their clients is scrupulously protected; lawyers are even prevented from revealing information about illegal activities that their clients are involved in without their clients’ consent. A similar relationship historically exists between doctors and their patients regarding the release of medical information; however, as Goodwin notes, pregnant women living in the South – particularly poor, women of color – are increasingly at risk of arrest if a toxicology report reveals that they have illicit substances in their bodies. Such was the case in South Carolina where dozens of Black women responded to an advertisement for free prenatal care at the Medical University of South Carolina, which, as the medical director later acknowledged, was little more than a sting operation. Carrying the comparison further, the Goodwin argues that while police receive legal training and would be required to obtain permission from a judge to search a home, medical personnel have no training in constitutional law, and need not apply to a neutral, third party to conduct a search of the body or give the results of the search to law enforcement.

While the South Carolina legislature, the district attorney and the MUSC might be directly to blame, Goodwin is also very critical of organizations like Planned Parenthood whose singular focus on abortion has not only led them to ignore the proliferation of “fetal protection laws,” but also the cases like Captain Susan Struck who b