In just the last two weeks, two Texans were arrested and charged with performing abortions at a Houston-area reproductive health clinic, the first criminal charges brought under the state’s near-total abortion ban; a 24-year-old woman of color was arrested in Georgia after having a miscarriage; and a Pennsylvania teenager is being investigated for ‘abuse of a corpse’ after a self-managed abortion.

Anti-abortion extremists are working to exploit every possible avenue to completely ban abortion and prevent providers from helping people – and how their actions disproportionately impact POC, immigrants, and young people, as maternal mortality rates continue to climb.

Lawmakers in more than 10 states have introduced bills that would allow authorities to charge people who obtain abortions with homicide for the 2025 legislative session: Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. Most of those states have already banned abortion either in nearly all circumstances or after six weeks of pregnancy. (Missouri and North Dakota are the only exceptions; both of them previously had near-total abortion bans that have since been overturned by voters.)

Our statement from Lexi White, Director of State Strategies at All* Above All:

“States, and advocates for abortion justice, need to think creatively and stay one step ahead of these anti-abortion efforts,” White says. “Fighting back against the criminalization of abortion access encapsulates why it is so important to view abortion justice through an intersectional lens. We know that the renewed enforcement of these criminal laws will disproportionately target and harm communities of color and low income communities across the country. It is a racial and economic justice issue to ensure that people are not dragged into the carceral system for seeking basic healthcare, and it is our collective responsibility to build safer communities, where everyone can access reproductive healthcare with dignity and without fear of punishment or state sanctioned violence.”

There are steps state legislatures can take in the face of “ground zero” anti-abortion efforts in deep red states to scrutinize, surveil and prosecute pregnant people.

All* Above All’s recommendations call for states to:

• Repeal any state level abortion bans or restrictions, fetal personhood language, explicit or implicit bans on telehealth, restrictions on youth access, and medically unnecessary requirements placed on patients and providers. This includes any Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws such as physician only laws, biased counseling and reporting requirements, parental involvement laws, and burdensome waiting periods.
• Seek to clarify or repeal statutes on the books that can be exploited to ban or otherwise limit access to abortions, including clarifying that state level Comstock-type Laws are not applicable to abortion care.
• Codify the protections of the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) into state law to ensure pregnant people receive emergency abortion care when their lives are in danger.
• Proactively dispel misinformation from the anti-abortion movement, including through state and local education and public awareness campaigns.
• Enact strong patient and provider protections to prevent the criminalization of pregnancy status and outcomes.