ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the treatment of Black pregnant individuals in US prisons, jails, and juvenile detention facilities and examines the failure of the legal system to protect their interests. It documents the history of movement building and legislative change on behalf of and by incarcerated pregnant and parenting individuals; with a focus on activism led by formerly incarcerated individuals and Black women dedicated to centering Black birthing persons’ lives. The chapter reframes abolition and reproductive justice as inextricably conjoined; elevates the visibility of intersectional and coalitional movements, and generates an embodied abolitionist practice that challenges gender-based violence, coercion, and control centered on reproductive bodies. Pregnancy is one of the most significant ways in which gender shapes criminalization and punishment.
