John Oliver Criticizes Fetal Personhood Laws

The debate over fetal personhood has become a central issue in the anti-abortion movement in the US. About a third of US states have established fetal personhood by law, giving legal rights and protections to fetuses and in some cases embryos.

## Fetal Personhood Laws Have Harsh Consequences

Fetal personhood has been used to charge women with crimes related to their pregnancies. A woman from Ohio named Brittany Watts was charged with abuse of a corpse after suffering a miscarriage, while a pregnant woman in Alabama was charged with manslaughter after she miscarried after being shot. These cases highlight the bleak reality of fetal personhood laws.

## The Slippery Slope of Fetal Personhood

Fetal personhood has been a "quiet goal" of the anti-abortion movement for some years. In 1984, Ronald Reagan said that an unborn child "is already protected by the constitution". However, the supreme court explicitly rejected fetal personhood when it decided Roe v Wade in 1973, saying that the word "person" as used in the 14th amendment "does not include the unborn". Despite this, state legislators have felt emboldened to push for fetal personhood legislation since the 2022 Dobbs decision.

## The Risks of Fetal Personhood

Fetal personhood can be used to criminalize conduct during pregnancy such as drinking alcohol or using drugs. However, the risk to a fetus is often complex and less clear-cut than the law assumes. In fact, hospitals often drug-test pregnant women and fetuses without their knowledge, and adopt a zero-tolerance approach. This has resulted in glaring mishaps, including instances where pregnant women have tested positive for opiates after eating poppy seeds.

## The Consequences of False Positives

A 2025 report found that about 70,000 mothers were flagged to police in the past six years, with many results originating from false positives and flawed drug tests. This has led to terrifying expectant mothers being threatened with jail time, which can have its own set of risks. As John Oliver said, "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."

## The Sanctity of Life

Those who push fetal personhood will insist that it's based on a principled stance about the sanctity of life from the moment of conception. However, this logic is flawed, as it would mean that an IVF clinic would need to be shut down, as they wouldn't just be storing extra embryos to maximize the chance of successful implantation. Under that logic, they'd essentially be warehouses where human beings regularly die.

## Conclusion

John Oliver concluded that fetal personhood "effectively treats women as incubators". They're effectively stripping women of their rights and autonomy, and it does not seem radical to be able to control your own life and body through that experience.