On his HBO show Sunday night, John Oliver criticized fetal personhood laws, arguing that they effectively treat women as incubators. The discussion comes after the overturning of Roe v Wade, which has led to a surge in such legislation across the US.
Fetal Personhood Laws and Their Impact
About a third of US states have established fetal personhood by law, granting legal rights and protections to fetuses and in some cases embryos. As a result, hundreds of women have lost custody of their children for reasons related to their pregnancies. Oliver highlighted cases like Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman charged with abuse of a corpse after a miscarriage, and an Alabama woman charged with manslaughter after being shot and miscarrying.
Oliver noted the absurdity of such charges, stating, 'If you suffer a miscarriage after being shot, you shouldn't be charged with manslaughter. That's one of those sentences I never thought I'd end up needing to say out loud.'
Historical Context and Legal Shifts
Fetal personhood has been a 'quiet goal' of the anti-abortion movement for years, with Ronald Reagan in 1984 claiming an unborn child is 'already protected by the constitution.' The Supreme Court explicitly rejected fetal personhood in Roe v Wade (1973), stating that 'person' in the 14th amendment 'does not include the unborn,' yet acknowledged the state's 'important and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of unborn life.'
After the 2022 Dobbs decision, Oliver said, 'state legislators felt they could push much more aggressively for fetal personhood legislation.' This has led to a slippery slope where pregnant individuals are treated as less than full humans, with one abortion law sponsor referring to pregnant women as 'the host.' Oliver joked, 'There are only a handful of situations where it is acceptable to call a woman a 'host'—if she works front of house at a restaurant, if she invites you over for dinner, if she has her own talkshow, or if you're talking about Annabelle, the host to the demonic spirit permanently trapped inside her.'
Criminalization of Pregnancy Conduct
Fetal personhood laws can criminalize conduct during pregnancy, such as drinking alcohol or using drugs. Oliver acknowledged the complexity, saying, 'For many substances, the risk to a fetus is actually more complex and less clearcut than the law assumes.' Hospitals often drug-test pregnant women without their knowledge, and in at least 27 states, institutions must alert child protection services of positive tests.
This has led to glaring mishaps, including women testing positive for opiates after eating poppy seeds. Last year, an Alabama woman was only allowed supervised contact with her children for a month after eating an everything bagel. Oliver quipped, 'It should not be possible for your life to get fucked up that badly just based on what you had for breakfast.'
Alarming Statistics and Consequences
A 2025 report found that about 70,000 mothers were flagged to police in the past six years, many from false positives and flawed drug tests. Oliver warned, 'Terrifying expectant mothers with the threat of jail time comes with its own set of risks. Clearly babies do better when their moms go to doctor's appointments and ideally are not thrown in jail as part of a bullshit carrot-and-stick approach.'
In 2014, a Wisconsin woman was jailed and placed in solitary confinement after allegedly using methamphetamines while pregnant to treat a thyroid condition. Oliver added that pregnancy loss can lead to criminal charges, with miscarriages and stillbirths treated as suspicious, resulting in women being investigated or charged with crimes including murder.
Oliver concluded that fetal personhood 'effectively treats women as incubators,' stripping them of rights and autonomy. He stated, 'Even low-risk pregnancies are obviously life- and body-altering experiences. And it does not seem radical to me to be able to control your own life and body through that experience.'
