Jailing Women Won't End Abortion

“Abortion abolitionists” are selling people on a brutal delusion.

Nov 21, 2025

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“Abortion abolitionists”— anti-rights zealots who are conspicuously consumed by a fervent lust for doling out prison sentences or the death penalty to women who come to the decision that it is best to end a pregnancy — promote their savagery by promising that jailing (or executing) women who have an abortion will deter other women from doing the same.12 The threat of prosecution, they insist, will serve as a “tutor to deter abortionist women from murdering their children.”34

Hence, the so-called “abortion abolitionists” maintain that abortion will only be eradicated once women are jailed (or executed) for “homicide.”5678

But is the threat of prosecution for abortion a deterrent? Does prosecuting women actually stop other women from having abortions?

The answer is: mostly no.

Some people will be deterred by the threat of prosecution; but as evidence shows, the threat of prosecution does not deter the vast majority of people from having abortions. Here's what we know…

The threat of prosecution does deter some pregnant people from ending their pregnancies.

For example, Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old dental assistant, wife, and mother in Texas.

“At five weeks pregnant, doctors noticed her hypertension levels were high enough to indicate an imminent heart attack or stroke.”9 Early in her pregnancy, Walker was experiencing repeated seizures that would leave her unable to speak for short stints of time.

For the sake of her 14-year-old son, JJ, she repeatedly asked for an abortion for the sake of her health, but was denied.

Although Texas's overlapping abortion bans do not currently cruminalize pregnant people for having an abortion, confusion about the law still persists among the broader public. Tierra Walker desperately longed to end her pregnancy, but she was afraid that she would be prosecuted for doing so. As ProPublica reported:

“In her condition, Walker couldn’t fathom leaving the state [to have an abortion]. When her aunt suggested ordering abortion medication online, Walker was worried she could go to jail. She was spending so much time in the hospital; what if she got caught taking the pills?”10

Would Walker have been less deterred by the fear of prosecution and gone ahead with ordering medication abortion online had she not have had to be in the hospital - an environment of frequent monitoring? We will never know.

On her son's birthday, Tierra Walker died from preeclampsia, a dangerous form of gestational hypertension.

Walker's fear of getting caught taking abortion medication by a hospital worker - and of then going to jail for having done so - is a heartbreaking illustration of the fact that some people, especially in certain circumstances, are deterred by the threat of prosecution — sometimes with tragic and devastating results.

The threat of prosecution does not deter the vast majority of people from having an abortion.

For example, Candi Miller, a 41 year-old wife and mother of three in Georgia.

“Although Georgia courts have said women can’t be prosecuted for getting abortions, the state has sent mixed messages. While some state bans explicitly say women can’t be prosecuted, Georgia’s ban leaves open that possibility.”11 And an Atlanta area district attorney, who called abortion “murder,” had warned that “women in Georgia should prepare for the possibility that they could be criminally prosecuted for having an abortion.”12

This is what Miller and her family believed: that women would be prosecuted for having an abortion. “If you get caught trying to do anything to get rid of the baby, you get jail time for that,” Miller's son later explained.

Candi Miller suffered from lupus. Her “health was so fragile, doctors warned having another baby could kill her.”13 When Miller unexpectedly discovered she was pregnant, she was distressed to learn that she wasn't sick enough to qualify for an exception under Georgia’s abortion ban.

Concerned for her health, the threat of prosecution did not stop Miller from ordering abortion medications online. However, when she experienced a rare but easily treatable complication, the fear of prosecution kept her from visiting a doctor. In pain and too afraid of going to jail to seek medical care, Candi Miller tried to manage her symptoms herself at home. She mistakenly ingested a lethal combination of painkillers and died.

While the fear of prosecution did not deter Candi Miller from ending her pregnancy, that fear did lead to her death.

According to a 2023 global review of penalties for abortion-related offences, 134 countries criminalize women for having an abortion.14 “In almost all countries where the person seeking an abortion is criminalised, imprisonment is a possible penalty,” with sentences of up to life in prison.15 Yet, despite the proliferation of laws criminalizing people who have abortions, “evidence indicates that criminalisation does not impact the decision to have an abortion, prevent women from having abortions or prevent women from seeking information regarding where they can access abortions” (emphasis added).16

Take El Salvador, for example.

In El Salvador, which is hailed by the anti-abortion movement as an example of the ultimate “pro-life” paradise, all abortions have been completely banned since 1998 — even those necessary to save a patient’s life. Women and girls can be sentenced to up 8 years in prison for having an abortion; if a woman terminates her pregnancy post-viability, “a charge of aggravated homicide can be brought, and the penalty for the woman can be 30 to 50 years in prison” (emphasis added).17

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Has sentencing people who have abortions to decades in prison deterred the majority of women from having abortions? Has the threat of prosecution been an effective deterrent? No.

Despite the total ban and the criminalization of women, abortion has remained commonplace in El Salvador and abortion rates have not dropped.18 The abortion rate in El Salvador is 24 abortions per every 1,000 women — higher than the country's abortion rate prior to the enactment of the total ban criminalizing women.19

Or consider Honduras.

“Honduras enforces a strict abortion law,” enacted in 1985, “that bars the procedure under all possible circumstances,” and “a woman convicted of intentionally having an abortion can wind up in prison for between three and six years.”20 The abortion rate in Honduras is 21 abortions per every 1,000 women.21 The threat of prosecution has not deterred the vast majority of women from having abortions and abortion has remained commonplace.22

Or consider the Philippines.

“Abortion is illegal in the Philippines – a majority Catholic country and former American colony – and has been for over a century. Under the law, women found to have aborted their fetuses face prison terms of between two to six years.”23 The criminalization of women “has not prevented women from seeking abortion.”24 The abortion rate in the Philippines is 36 abortions per every 1,000 women;25 over a million people in the Philippines have abortions every year.26

The simple truth is that the criminalization of people who have an abortion is not the elimination of abortion. —And it's not like this is some big secret. It's long been known to be a failed policy.

For example, back in 1962, when some American states criminalized women for abortion, the the American Law Institute (ALI) released the Model Penal Code. ALI recommended eliminating criminal sanctions on people who have an abortion (except very late in pregnancy), because “criminal liability of the woman for abortion committed on herself has not been useful in suppressing self-abortion.”2728

In ProChoiceLife: Asking Who Protects Life and How—and Why It Matters in Law and Politics, published in the Indiana Law Journal, Reva Siegel explains, “Women’s decisions about abortion are shaped by circumstances that women face before conception and can foresee after birth.”29 Hence, abortion rates are not so much a reflection of abortion’s legality or illegality, but is instead a reflection of people's circumstances, as well as their ability to access affordable and effective pregnancy prevention.30 Rather than working to improve the circumstances women face and help them avoid unintended pregnancies, “abortion abolitionists” put all their efforts into criminalizing women.

“Abortion abolitionists” are marketing a brutal delusion. Jailing women won't end abortion. It never has and it never will.

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Jailing Women Won't End Abortion

“Abortion abolitionists” are selling people on a brutal delusion.

The threat of prosecution does deter some pregnant people from ending their pregnancies.

The threat of prosecution does not deter the vast majority of people from having an abortion.

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