Policing the Womb by Michele Goodwin is a bold and unsettling account of how the U.S. legal and healthcare systems increasingly regulate and punish women for their reproductive choices, especially those who are poor, Black, Indigenous, or otherwise marginalized. At Liberty Law, we believe that justice must be rooted in bodily autonomy, equity, and the dismantling of systems that criminalize survival. Goodwin’s work demands that we reckon with a deeply ingrained form of gendered state violence.
Criminalizing Reproductive Decision-Making
The book traces how laws originally intended to protect fetal health have been weaponized against pregnant people, often without their consent or understanding. Across the country, women have been arrested for miscarriages, detained for refusing certain medical procedures, and prosecuted under the guise of protecting unborn life. What emerges is a disturbing pattern: state surveillance and punishment of pregnancy, especially when the person carrying the pregnancy is already marginalized.
Rather than protecting life, these laws often endanger it, placing pregnant people in hostile environments, removing their right to make medical decisions, and subjecting them to incarceration for outcomes beyond their control.
Race, Class, and Control
Central to this work is the idea that not all bodies are policed equally. Black and brown women, women in poverty, and women who use drugs are disproportionately targeted. Goodwin documents case after case where state actors criminalize these women under the pretense of public health, exposing the deep racial and classist biases baked into legal and medical institutions.
These policies, the book argues, are not accidental. They are rooted in a long history of reproductive control, from forced sterilizations to the myth of the “crack baby,” and continue to evolve under the framework of fetal personhood and punitive maternal responsibility.
The Role of Medical Institutions
Hospitals, doctors, and nurses play a complex role in these dynamics. While some advocate for patients’ rights, others collaborate with law enforcement to report suspected misconduct. This blurring of healthcare and policing compromises trust and endangers patients, especially when consent is overlooked or ignored.
The text urges a reimagining of medical ethics—one that centers patient autonomy and resists state interference in deeply personal health decisions.
Legal Systems and Institutional Betrayal
The criminalization of pregnancy is enabled by vague and inconsistently applied laws, as well as by judges and prosecutors who often lack medical training but wield enormous power. Goodwin reveals how courts use concepts like “fetal harm” or “fetal endangerment” to justify arrests, even when no crime has technically occurred.
Legal actors, it argues, must be held accountable for reinforcing gender-based violence through the misuse of their authority. Courts should protect constitutional rights, not erode them through ideologically driven prosecutions.
The Illusion of Protection
What makes this work especially compelling is its ability to expose how rhetoric around “protecting children” is often a smokescreen for control. Pregnant people are denied the dignity of making their own choices under the assumption that someone else knows better. This belief is not applied equally—it follows the contours of power, whiteness, wealth, and perceived respectability.
In stripping women of their rights under the banner of fetal protection, the system not only fails to care for children—it punishes those who are most likely to raise them under difficult conditions.
A Call to Resist Criminalization
The book does more than document injustice. It offers a call to action for advocates, legal professionals, medical practitioners, and anyone concerned with civil liberties. Goodwin argues for legislative reform, community-based advocacy, and public education campaigns that dismantle the narratives used to justify the surveillance and punishment of pregnant people.
For those of us at Liberty Law, these ideas are a vital reminder of the urgent need to defend reproductive justice as part of a broader vision for bodily autonomy and systemic accountability. Protecting the dignity and rights of pregnant people is not just a healthcare issue—it is a human rights imperative.
Final Thoughts
Policing the Womb exposes how deeply the criminal legal system has invaded the most intimate aspects of life and autonomy. It connects personal experience to political structures and legal precedent, offering both an indictment and a blueprint for change. In a time when reproductive rights are under renewed attack, this book is both timely and necessary.
It challenges us to build a legal system that trusts people to make decisions about their own bodies and lives, without fear of punishment, surveillance, or shame. For attorneys, advocates, and policymakers committed to reproductive justice, this work by Michele Goodwin is essential reading.
