Marsh woke up, rushed to the toilet, “and when I did, the child came.” The Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “open[ed] the door to government intrusion into pregnancy in unprecedented ways,

A study has found that the number of women charged with crimes related to their pregnancies jumped in the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for abortion bans across the country.

Most of the cases involved accusations of child abuse, neglect or endangerment in which the fetus was listed as the victim.

Researchers blame fetal personhood laws for normalizing the policing of pregnant people’s behavior, mental health and medical decisions.