118. 2023 Clinic HRJG Report - U.S. Criminalization of Abortion and Pregnancy Outcomes - Shadow Report to the UN Human Rights Committee for the Fifth Periodic Review of the United States - September 12, 2023

Aug 29, 2026

A shadow submission to the UN Human Rights Committee addresses criminalization and punitive enforcement against people for abortion, stillbirth, miscarriage, and adverse pregnancy outcomes in the United States. It describes how state laws and officials use surveillance, investigation, arrest, detention, and prosecution to restrict access to abortion care after Dobbs. The report links these practices to violations of rights to life, privacy, freedom from degrading treatment, and protections against discrimination, emphasizing gendered, racialized, and socioeconomic impacts.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Overview

Post-Dobbs state criminalization and access to care

Human Rights Committee standards on punishment and healthcare

Legal analysis

Right to life, non-discrimination, and equal protection

Gender discrimination and disproportionate impacts

Criminalization and Punishment for Abortion, Stillbirth, Miscarriage, and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Shadow Report to the UN Human Rights Committee for the Fifth Periodic Review of the United States Submitted by Human Rights & Gender Justice Clinic, CUNY School of Law* If/When/How Pregnancy Justice Center for Reproductive Rights Birthmark Doula Collective Changing Woman Initiative We Testify September 12, 2023 This shadow report focuses on the punishment and criminalization of individuals for abortion, stillbirths, miscarriages, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. In the U.S. , human rights violations occur when states pass laws that explicitly criminalize performing abortions and when state officials misuse other laws to surveil, investigate, arrest, detain, and prosecute pregnant individuals based on the perceived impact of their actions on their pregnancy. In the past year since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. has been thrown into a state of chaos as states * For questions about this report, please contact HRGJ Co-Director Cynthia Soohoo at [cynthia.soohoo@law.cuny.edu](cynthia.soohoo@law.cuny.edu). September 2023 1 race to either enact draconian restrictions or create protections for abortion access. Currently, fourteen states are enforcing total or near-total bans on abortion.1 And caught in the middle of the pitched political battles are the millions of people who will need abortion care in states where it is being moved out of reach, and in many cases criminalized, who have to determine where they can turn and whom they can trust to get the care they need. The Human Rights Committee has recognized that criminalizing abortion and adverse pregnancy outcomes turns pregnant people away from needed health care and increases the likelihood that individuals will resort to unsafe abortion or forgo needed health care in violation of Article 6. In addition, the Committee and other human rights bodies emphasize that health care providers must respect the confidentiality of patients suffering obstetric emergencies and have condemned reports to law enforcement as a violation of the rights to life (Art. 6), privacy (Art. 17), and to be free from torture, cruel, unhuman, and degrading treatment (Art. 7) . Criminalization of individuals for obstetric outcomes also constitutes gender discrimination under Articles 2, 3, and 26. Laws criminalizing behavior that is predominantly performed by women, like abortion, or criminalizing behavior because of pregnancy or a pregnancy outcome that is not similarly criminalized in any other circumstance per se constitute gender discrimination. Further, criminalization of people for obstetric outcomes disproportionately impacts Black and Indigenous women and women of lower socio-economic status who are subject to over-surveillance and more likely to experience violations of their rights to fair trial and access to justice, reflecting gender and racial stereotypes about women’s roles as mothers and the “unfitness” of Black and Indigenous mothers–as well as improper criminalization of pregnant people based on their lack of access to health care and socio-economic status in violation of Articles 2, 3, 9, 14, and 26. I. Imposing Criminal Penalties for Abortion and Obstetric Emergencies Violates the Right to Life and Non-Discrimination and Equal Protection of the Law (Art. 6, 2, 3, 26) (List of Issues Questions 7 and 12) Overview: Since the Dobbs decision, many states have explicitly criminalized the provision of abortion, and the law in one state criminalizes people who self-manage their abortions. In addition, even before Dobbs opened the door to the vast expansion of criminal abortion laws, there is a long history of arrests and prosecution of people who are suspected of self-managing abortions or who suffer adverse pregnancy outcomes even without explicit statutory authorization. In these cases,

FAQs

What does the shadow report focus on regarding abortion in the U.S.?

It focuses on how abortion, stillbirth, miscarriage, and adverse pregnancy outcomes are met with punishment and criminalization, including enforcement through surveillance, investigation, arrest, detention, and prosecution.

How does the report connect criminalization to international human rights obligations?

It argues that criminalizing abortion and obstetric outcomes drives people away from needed care and increases resort to unsafe abortion or forgoing care, violating rights to life, privacy, and freedom from degrading treatment.

Why does the report say the criminalization is gender discriminatory?

It states that laws criminalizing conduct predominantly performed by women, or criminalizing conduct because of pregnancy or its outcomes in a way not applied similarly in other circumstances, constitutes gender discrimination and disproportionately harms Black and Indigenous women.

Aug 29, 2026

Uploaded by Alex Sinclair