Beyond Abortion: What is Behind the Desire to Punish Women for their Miscarriages?
In March of 2016, then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump was asked whether women who undergo abortions when the procedure is banned should be subject to punishment. Though he later retracted the comment, at the time Trump claimed that women must face “some sort of punishment” (Bump, 2016). When further asked whether the man who got the woman in question pregnant should be held responsible under the law, Trump responded “Different feelings. Different people. I would say no.” (ibid.).
Despite the later reversal of these comments by the presidential hopeful, this punitive attitude towards pregnant women appears to be widespread; what is more, it does not appear to be limited to those who seek banned abortions, but rather targets women who engage in any action that may threaten the fetus and increase the risk of miscarriage. Miscarrying a pregnancy is common and often outside the individual’s control, but there is a great deal of public misunderstanding about the topic. Survey data suggests that 55% of Americans believe miscarriages are “rare” despite happening in 25% of pregnancies. In addition, even though most miscarriages are caused by chromosomal abnormalities, it is widely believed that women frequently bring about their own miscarriages through their behaviour (Hand, 2013). As a result, it can become the responsibility of the woman to “prove” both that the miscarriage was involuntary (and not an abortion), and that her actions did not play a causal role (Browne, 2018).
For example, many states have “fetal homicide” laws that hold women criminally responsible if their behavior is thought to have played a causal role in a miscarriage (Browne, 2018). The behavior in question is often illicit drug use, but can also include the use of prescription medication and even behavior as seemingly innocuous as falling down a flight of stairs (Baldwin, 2022). In some U.S. states, the law is especially punitive. For example, if a woman in Alabama has a miscarriage or stillbirth and is found to have used drugs during her pregnancy, she can be sent to prison for up to 99 years (Kilander, 2022). Given these severe consequences, it is important to understand the psychological factors underpinning this apparent desire to punish pregnant women.
The desire to control women’s fertility and sexuality has been linked to a fundamental feature of gender dynamics: men have physical and structural power over women but are still dependent upon them for reproduction. This complex interdependence between men and women can be seen in the content of hostile sexism: the antipathic, distrusting component of sexism, which suggests that women manipulate men by trapping them in relationships or accusing them of discrimination (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Hostile sexism portrays men and women as engaged in a struggle for power and thus is associated with the desire to punish women who “misbehave” (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Along these lines, hostile sexism is associated with positions that give men control over the outcomes of pregnancy. For example, Petterson and Sutton (2018; also Chalmers et al., 2023) found that hostile sexists supported men’s right to veto a partner’s abortion and to financially coerce her into getting an abortion. The implications of these policy positions for abortion are diametrically opposed, but their gendered implications are consistent: both give men power over women’s choices.
Hostile sexism has also been associated specifically with punitive attitudes toward pregnant women. Murphy et al. (2011) focused on the association between sexism and prohibitive beliefs about activities pregnant women should not partake in, such as drinking alcohol or undertaking strenuous exercise, and found that hostile sexists held punitive attitudes toward women who flouted these prohibitions. Research is still lacking, however, on how these punitive attitudes may translate into punishments for miscarriage — which, unlike punishments for flouting pregnancy guidelines, are actively present in some legal systems (e.g., Browne, 2018). In addition, looking beyond the influence of sexism, it remains to be seen how political orientation may be playing a role in these attitudes.
Previous research suggests that conservatives are more punitive than liberals in general, and that they are more likely than liberals to support the death penalty (Sandys & McGarrell, 1995) and harsh punishments for offenders (Carroll et al., 1987). In addition, conservatives are far more likely than liberals to oppose women’s reproductive autonomy (Diamant, 2020). The anti-abortion stance of conservatives has been linked with their tendency to be more religious, to favour the status quo, and to be accepting of inequality — including inequality between men and women.
Another political orientation that could theoretically be associated with these punishing attitudes is libertarianism. Libertarianism states that society should be organized around the principle of individual liberty (Boaz, 2020). Based on this emphasis on liberty, one might assume that libertarians should be against punishing women for miscarriage. However, Chalmers et al. (2023) examined libertarians’ attitudes towards reproductive freedom for both women and men and found that, much like hostile sexists, libertarians tended to oppose women’s reproductive freedoms, while supporting men’s (i.e., financial abortion and spousal veto). This research suggests that libertarians — who are overwhelmingly male — may be inconsistent and selective when it comes to the real-life application of their values.
With this in mind, we set out to investigate whether hostile sexism was still related to punitive attitudes toward pregnant women (as in Murphy et al., 2011) while also examining the role of political orientation and shifting our focus from abstract attitudes to concrete policies that exist to punish women for miscarriage (Chalmers et al., 2024). We assessed support for punishment by asking participants whether women should be punished if they miscarried after activities such as “using drugs, tobacco, or alcohol,” “having an accident,” or “having been denied a legal abortion, and are suspected of intentionally inducing miscarriage.” We conducted three studies with different samples in order to obtain cumulative confidence in the findings, and all three were conducted in the United States.
In all three studies, hostile sexism was related to support for punishing women, even after controlling for political orientation. This willingness on the part of hostile sexists to punish women for their choices and outcomes during pregnancy underscores the connection between hostile sexism and the desire to exert control over women’s reproductive capacity. Much like the findings from Petterson and Sutton (2018) and Chalmers et al. (2023) — where participants who endorsed hostile sexism preferred whichever abortion policies afforded men the most control — the ability to punish pregnant women is arguably another example of exerting control over them.
When it came to political orientation, conservatism was positively associated with support for punishment, and after controlling for sexism, it remained that way in two studies. This finding is consistent with the tendency for conservatives to be more punitive than liberals in general (Silver & Silver, 2017). Most laws in the U.S. imposing punishment on women for miscarriage are passed by Republican lawmakers; one example is Virginia state delegate John Cosgrove, a Republican who attempted to pass a bill in the state requiring women to report the death of their fetus to police within 12h of miscarrying lest they be charged with a misdemeanor (Ratliff, 2009).
Libertarianism was also positively associated with support for punishment, but this was no longer the case after controlling for sexism; with this in mind, we conducted mediation analyses (Hayes, 2017) to test whether the relationship between libertarianism and support for punishment was explained by hostile sexism, and found that this was the case in two of the three studies (see Figure 1). These findings contradict not only libertarians’ emphasis on individual liberty as an abstract tenet but also their stated belief in freedom from government intervention (Boaz, 2020). While our results align with Chalmers et al.’s (2023) research suggesting that libertarians do not support reproductive freedom for women, they also go a step further in highlighting libertarians’ support for state-enforced consequences for women who experience negative outcomes during pregnancy. Despite their small numbers relative to traditional liberals and conservatives, libertarians are gaining a foothold in the United States in recent years (Kiley, 2014), and this apparently inconsistent picture provides further evidence for the selective application of libertarian principles.
These findings highlight that support for punishing women for miscarriage is intertwined with ideological attitudes, including political ideologies, which is important information for both policymakers and voters, particularly given the salience of abortion rights when it comes to deciding elections (Ax, 2023). This research was conducted in the midst of the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade — the landmark Supreme Court ruling that had protected a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion since 1973 (Totenberg & McCammon, 2022). In the aftermath of this reversal, we are witnessing a tumultuous time for women’s reproductive rights, particularly in the United States. These findings also have implications for activists who are campaigning to protect women’s reproductive rights, as emphasizing how ideologies such as sexism, conservatism, and libertarianism encroach on women’s reproductive autonomy in this specific realm can be a persuasive messaging tool they can use to move their cause forward.
Overall, attitudes toward pregnancy and reproduction are deeply intertwined with other ideologies — in some ways that are obvious, and some ways that are not — and support for punishing women for miscarriage is no exception. Hostile sexism remains relevant to support for punishment even after controlling for political identification, but conservatism also plays an important role, and libertarianism does not appear to provide an antidote to these attitudes despite its emphasis on individual rights and freedoms. As more and more policies emerge to restrict women’s reproductive choices, it is more important than ever to investigate what factors are driving these attitudes and policies.
Check out the original article: Chalmers, J., Woodford, L., & Sutton, R. M. (2024). Punishing Women for Miscarriage: The role of Political Orientation and Hostile Sexism. Sex Roles, 90(5), 613–627. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-024-01467-0
About the Author
Jocelyn Chalmers has just finished her PhD in social and political psychology at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK, and is set to begin a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Portsmouth shortly.
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