Report: Alabama continues to lead nation in prosecutions of pregnant women

Alabama continues to lead the nation in prosecutions of women in relation to pregnancy, pregnancy loss and birth, according to a recent report.

Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit that defends the rights of pregnant people, found that Alabama prosecuted 192 women from June 2022 to July 2024, the first two years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Most of the prosecutions are related to drug use, according to the report. Many are concentrated in Etowah County, which in recent years has cracked down on drug use while pregnant, using a 2006 chemical endangerment law intended to protect children from meth labs, according to a 2023 AL.com analysis. A message seeking comment from the Etowah County District Attorney’s Office was not immediately returned.

According to the report released Sept. 30, at least 412 prosecutions have happened in the two years following the Dobbs decision, most of which were involved accusation of drug use during pregnancy.

A’Niya Robinson, policy and organizing director of the Alabama ACLU, said in an interview that prosecutors should prove that any drug-related crime was done with the intent to harm a woman’s unborn child before they punish them.

“That’s a really big issue. If you’re going to charge a mother with harming her child, you at least need to be able to prove that that’s what she set out to do,” Robinson said. “They’re not necessarily proving that intent element, or if they are, we’re not really seeing it in the records.”

The report found that about 85% of cases did not require proof of harm.

Robinson also said that for a state that prides itself on a pro-family platform, prosecuting pregnant women without proof of intent is not true to the platform.

“The fact that someone who maybe does suffer from substance abuse, the fact that that is being met with incarceration and not something that feels a bit more merciful, like treatment, that’s also something that is weighing on me as well,” she said.

Robinson said that incarcerated pregnant women are generally not taken care of, including not having time with her child when they are born during the mother’s sentence. The ACLU worked on legislation last year to allow a pregnant woman’s report date to be delayed until 12 weeks after birth. The bill was never considered.

“For a state like Alabama that prides itself on really caring for families and mothers, we don’t always do the best job at that,” Robinson said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alabama’s infant mortality rate was 7.64 death per 1,000 live births in 2023. In Alabama, the infant mortality rate for Black infants was 12.4 per 1,000 live births in 2022. That’s an increase from 11 deaths per 1,000 in 2018, when numbers started to increase after a drop from 15.3 per 1,000 live births in 2015. For white infants, the mortality rate in 2022 was 4.3 per 1,000 live births, an all-time low.

White infants account for 69.8% of births in Alabama but make up 44.5% of deaths. Black infants account for 28% of births but 51.4% of deaths, according to the CDC.

Read more at AlabamaReflector.com.