Pregnancy and Violence

Pregnancy can be both the site of, and a catalyst for, violence.

Nov 11, 2025

⚠️Content Warning: This post contains graphic images, describes pregnancy and childbirth experiences, and discusses various forms of violence against pregnant persons.

Before we discuss abortion restrictions as policy violence (in a subsequent article), it's important to review violence and pregnancy.

In our culture, pregnancy is popularly perceived as a “special” time during which the pregnant person is envisioned as “glowing” and “radiant.”1 “Our cultural script for pregnancy further constitutes the pregnant person as specially protected, buffered from potential violence,” and surrounded by an excited and “supportive community.”2 Because of this, “[t]he law can, and often does, reflect this idealized vision of pregnancy.”3

“The reality, however, is that pregnancy can also be the site of, and a catalyst for, violence — both as a result of the physical process itself and because of the ubiquity of state and private violence against pregnant people. Further, the presence of private violence can be a catalyst for public violence — and vice versa — placing the pregnant person at risk for overlapping and escalating harm at the exact moment culture assumes she is safest,” (emphasis added) explains Meghan Boone in her 2023 article, Expecting Violence: Centering the Experience of Violence in Pregnancy (published in the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law).4 Boone is a Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law.

The following sections briefly explore three areas of violence and pregnancy: (a) the “normal” violence of pregnancy, (b) the private violence of pregnancy, and (c) the public violence of pregnancy.

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The “Normal” Violence of Pregnancy

“Pregnancy hurts — pain is the norm in pregnancy.”5 Pregnancy is hard on the body, even for the healthiest of people. It is continuous, laborious, and risky; every pregnancy carries the risk of developing serious medical complications.6

“In a different context, the list of symptoms that pregnant people experience as a matter of course would be the result of a scary diagnosis, and hopefully gather just as much sympathy. In fact, the common symptoms of pregnancy overlap significantly with those of advanced chronic kidney disease. Kidney patients also complain of pain and discomfort, severe fatigue, depression, and limited physical capabilities, along with nausea and vomiting, constipation, poor sleep quality, frequent urination and heightened risk of UTIs, itchy skin, and even altered taste and smell.”7 As researchers Anna Smajdor and Joona Räsänen observe, “Like a disease, pregnancy affects the health of the pregnant person, causing a range of symptoms from discomfort to death.”8

Unlike kidney disease, however, “the chronic illness that is pregnancy will mostly end after nine months, and for parents carrying wanted pregnancies, joyfully welcoming a newborn at the end of it often more than makes up for the suffering. But for those who never wanted a pregnancy and don’t want to give birth, it’s a lot to ask.”9

Research shows that, “[u]nplanned pregnancies carry even greater risks of morbidity and mortality than planned pregnancies, and many states that have banned abortion already have less access to obstetric care and higher rates of maternal mortality.”1011

Furthermore, many people with unwanted pregnancies experience and describe it as a bodily injury that is happening to their bodies;12 whether these individuals’ unwanted pregnancies were the result of rape or consensual sex, they are often phenomenologically experienced in the same way - as injuries.13

Of note, as Khiara M. Bridges details in the Stanford Law Review, most states classify pregnancy that results from rape as a “substantial bodily injury,” a “substantial personal injury,” or a “serious personal injury,” and often legally equate pregnancy with “great bodily harm.”14 Bridges is a Professor of Law at the University of California Berkeley School of Law and a reproductive health scholar.

And then there's birth— itself notoriously painful. “Giving birth is violent, producing pain and [] injury or death to mother or child at times.”15

Boone observes that, “[i]f there is one negative aspect of pregnancy that the cultural zeitgeist deigns to take into account, it is this (birth). Even here, however, the pain and violence of childbirth is often portrayed for its supposed humor — the ‘comedic’ trope of the laboring woman, breath ragged, yelling at her partner or her doctor appears in many television shows and movies. But far from comedic for many people who experience it, childbirth can be both a painful and traumatic process” (emphasis added).16

In fact, “up to 45% of postpartum people report birth trauma.”1718

“Childbirth related perineal trauma is extremely common after vaginal birth,”19 with perineal laceration affecting approximately 90% of women.20 “Subsequent complications such as wound infection or dehiscence occur frequently.”21 Furthermore, obstetrical anal sphincter injury sustained during childbirth “is a significant risk factor for the development of anal incontinence, with approximately 10% of women developing symptoms within a year following vaginal birth.”22 And every pregnancy continued to term results in an open wound in the uterus the size of a dinner plate where the placenta was embedded.23

Degrees of Perineal Tears / Image source: https://www.mangiarellirehabilitation.com/blog/physical-therapy-for-episiotomy-and-perineal-tears

Birth via cesarean section is likewise a violent process. A C-sections is a major abdominal surgery that involves cutting into the pregnant person’s abdomen and making an incision (hysterotomy) into their uterus. Cesarean sections put the pregnant patient at increased danger of morbidity and mortality both during and following the procedure.24

Cesarean surgery in progress/ Image source: Uterine Incision Techniques, Abubakr M.A. Nasr, https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/89525

“Even after reading stacks of pregnancy books, faithfully following their health care provider’s advice and successfully delivering a healthy baby, women often enter motherhood with what suddenly feels like a broken body.”25 And “making it through childbirth alive doesn’t mean a parent is medically out of the woods. The health care system is often unresponsive, too fragmented or ill-prepared to handle women’s postpartum conditions.”26

Pregnancy permanently changes one’s body. The long-term damage to one's health may not appear until long after giving birth.272829

The Private Violence of Pregnancy

Pregnancy can also “be the site of, and catalyst for, violence from outside forces, as well.”30

For example, “a woman's risk of being killed in the United States increases by 20 percent on average when pregnant or after giving birth. For those under 25, that risk more than doubles. In fact, pregnant and postpartum women are more likely to be killed than die from childbirth-related issues like severe bleeding, infection and high blood pressure.”31 Not only is “homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women,” often due to domestic violence, but “in states with abortion restrictions, that homicide rate is 75 percent higher” (emphasis added).32

Experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) can result in “lifelong consequences, including emotional trauma, lasting physical impairment, chronic health problems, and even death.”33

Furthermore, “pregnancy can be a catalyst for the severity of violence to increase.”34

Boone notes that, “even if pregnancy does not result in homicide, the physical realities of pregnancy (and early parenthood) places an individual who was potentially already experiencing violence in a uniquely vulnerable position, increasing her susceptibility to violence and decreasing her ability to disentangle herself from systems of support even when they risk additional violence.”35

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The Public Violence of Pregnancy

In addition to the “normal” violence of pregnancy and the risk of private violence during pregnancy and the postpartum period, pregnant people are often subjected to public violence imposed by the state, by institutions, and by the community.

For example, “pregnant people are expected — and sometimes required — to endure additional violence in the form of un-wanted and often unnecessary medical interventions. This ‘obstetric violence’ includes forced and/or coerced surgeries and medical procedures, sexual violence, and unnecessary physical restraint, including shackling during childbirth.”36

Pregnancy criminalization is also a form of public violence and “occurs when the state wields a criminal law to render acts associated with a pregnancy, pregnancy loss, birth, and/or associated healthcare the subject of criminal prosecution.”37 Criminalizing pregnancy results in tangible harms to pregnant people, fetuses, and born babies. For example, Tennessee’s 2014 fetal endangerment law “undermined the ability of mothers to access prenatal care, worsened birth outcomes, and increased both fetal and infant death rates.”38

“Incarcerated pregnant people are more likely to experience state violence, including being deprived of basic and necessary medical care during pregnancy and birth. Prisoners in Arizona recently claimed that they were subject to forced inductions of labor well before their due dates because of a prison policy.”394041

States have a horrifying record of “exerting[] violent control over the pregnant body by making pregnancy a sufficient reason to strip away rights and protections that would otherwise exist.”4243 Some states have even gone so far as to “permit the complete deprivation of a pregnant person’s liberty through civil commitment laws that apply specially to pregnant people.”4445

Importantly, private violence and public violence do not exist independently of one another. Societal, institutional, and interpersonal reproductive coercion “increases the risk of unintended pregnancy and, without legal access to abortion, unintended pregnancies are more likely to result in increased incidence and severity of IPV.”46

As such, “private and public violence becomes mutually reinforcing — one type of violence placing the pregnant person at a higher risk for other types of violence. Further, there is a meaningful association between laws that enact violence on pregnant bodies — including civil commitment laws and laws that invalidate the advanced directives of pregnant people — and increases in private forms of violence. It is not surprising that the normalization of violent control over pregnant bodies by the state might encourage — or at least tacitly endorse — more intimate forms of violent control.”47

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See also:

Beck, C. T., Watson, S., & Gable, R. K. (2018). Traumatic Childbirth and Its Aftermath: Is There Anything Positive?. The Journal of perinatal education, 27(3), 175–184. https://doi.org/10.1891/1058-1243.27.3.175

Rebecca Man, Victoria Hodgetts Morton, R. Katie Morris, Childbirth-related perineal trauma and its complications: prevalence, risk factors and management, Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Reproductive Medicine, Volume 34, Issue 9, 2024, Pages 252-259, ISSN 1751-7214, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ogrm.2024.06.003.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751721424000861)

Okeahialam, N. A., Sultan , A. H., & Thacker, R. (2024, March). The prevention of perineal trauma during vaginal birth - american journal of obstetrics & gynecology. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology . https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(22)00464-1/fulltext

Holmes, B. (n.d.). What to expect after giving birth. Quilted Health. https://www.quiltedhealth.com/care/resources/postpartum-what-to-expect-after-giving-birth

Morris, T., & Robinson, J. H. (2017). Forced and Coerced Cesarean Sections in the United States. Contexts, 16(2), 24-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504217714259

Santhanam, L. (2021, May 7). It’s time to recognize the damage of childbirth, doctors and mothers say. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/broken-tired-and-ashamed-how-health-care-fails-new-moms

Salamon, M. (2022, August 1). Pregnancy’s lasting toll. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/pregnancys-lasting-toll

See: Pregnancy Complications and Long-Term Mortality in a Diverse Cohort

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.062177

See: Impact of pregnancy on long-term health: Advances in postpregnancy care—An opportunity to improve long-term maternal health

https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijgo.14536

Boone, M. Expecting Violence: Centering the Experience of Violence in Pregnancy, 30 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 1 (2023).
https://vasocialpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Boone_LE_Final.pdf

Varney, S., & Wellford, R. (2025, October 16). Abortion restrictions may be fueling a rise in domestic violence, experts warn. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/abortion-restrictions-may-be-fueling-a-rise-in-domestic-violence-experts-warn

Rebekah Kratochvil, Intimate Partner Violence During Pregnancy: Exploring the Efficacy of a Mandatory Reporting Statute, 10 HOUS. J. HEALTH L. & POL’Y 63, 65 (2009)

Boone, M. Expecting Violence: Centering the Experience of Violence in Pregnancy, 30 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 1 (2023).
https://vasocialpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Boone_LE_Final.pdf

Pregnancy as a Crime (September 2024). Pregnancy Justice. https://www.pregnancyjusticeus.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Pregnancy-as-a-Crime.pdf#:~:text=Pregnancy%20criminalization%20occurs%20when%20the%20state%20wields,circumstances%20surrounding%20their%20pregnancies%20and%20pregnancy%20outcomes.

Benjamin McMichael & Meghan Boone, State-Created Fetal Harm, 109 Geo. L.J. 475 (2021). Available at: https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_articles/643

Boone, M. Expecting Violence: Centering the Experience of Violence in Pregnancy, 30 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 1 (2023).
https://vasocialpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Boone_LE_Final.pdf

See also:

Ocen, Priscilla A., Incapacitating Motherhood (June 27, 2018). 51 U.C. Davis Law Review 2191, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2018-32, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3237764

See also:

Wendy A. Bach, Prosecuting Poverty, Criminalizing Care, 60 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 809 (2019), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol60/iss3/3

Boone, M. Expecting Violence: Centering the Experience of Violence in Pregnancy, 30 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 1 (2023).
https://vasocialpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Boone_LE_Final.pdf

See also:

Ocen, Priscilla A., Birthing Injustice: Pregnancy as a Status Offense (December 3, 2017). 85 George Washington Law Review 1163 (2017), Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2017-46, Available at: https://www.gwlr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/85-Geo.-Wash.-L.-Rev.-1163.pdf

Boone, M. Expecting Violence: Centering the Experience of Violence in Pregnancy, 30 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 1 (2023).
https://vasocialpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Boone_LE_Final.pdf

For example, see:

WIS. STAT. § 48.133 (1997)

MINN. STAT. § 253B.02 (2022)

Boone, M. Expecting Violence: Centering the Experience of Violence in Pregnancy, 30 Va. J. Soc. Pol’y & L. 1 (2023).
https://vasocialpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Boone_LE_Final.pdf

rePro-Truth

Pregnancy and Violence

Pregnancy can be both the site of, and a catalyst for, violence.

The “Normal” Violence of Pregnancy

The Private Violence of Pregnancy

The Public Violence of Pregnancy

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