Miscarriage is a Crime Again

In 1650, a young, single English servant named Anne Greene miscarried into the privy and did not tell anyone. We know her story because she was arrested for infanticide, convicted despite exonerating testimony from medical expert witnesses, and hanged – but did not die. Her survival was regarded as a miracle, and she was pardoned.

In 2024, a single Black woman named Brittany Watts miscarried into her toilet at home in Ohio. We know her story because a nurse at the hospital where she received follow-up care called the police, who arrested Watts for “abuse of a corpse,” and it made national news.

Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, police in abortion-ban states have been emboldened to arrest women for reproductive mishaps. Women who lose pregnancies, even before viability, are targeted in ways that strongly resemble early modern infanticide investigations. And all indications are that these police practices will continue to spread....

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