Proponents of "fetal personhood" are advocating for legal and constitutional rights to be granted to fertilized eggs from the moment of conception. The movement, described by Svante Myrick, president of People For the American Way, as a no-compromise wing of anti-abortion advocacy, opposes exceptions for rape or incest in abortion bans. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has supported legislation intended to establish in law the belief that life begins at conception.
The legal landscape surrounding these proposals changed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a decision that had previously protected abortion rights nationwide. Since that ruling, personhood advocates, including Princeton University Professor Robert George, have urged the Court and Congress to recognize "prenatal persons" under the 14th Amendment. George argued in an amicus brief that states should be required to treat abortion as homicide and that federal enforcement would be necessary if states failed to do so.
Legal experts and observers have noted that personhood designations have already impacted state legal systems. In 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos destroyed in a clinic must be treated as persons under the state’s wrongful death statute. Additionally, a Wisconsin woman who had used drugs was arrested and incarcerated after she became pregnant, as officials sought to "protect" the fetus. Myrick noted that approximately one-quarter of pregnancies end in miscarriage, leading to concerns about criminal investigations into pregnancy loss.
Furthermore, these laws affect individuals using reproductive technologies and contraception. The Alabama Supreme Court's 2024 ruling on frozen embryos created legal uncertainty for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics and the patients they serve. The source indicates that personhood legal frameworks may also threaten the legality of common forms of birth control and the privacy of digital data, such as information stored in period-tracking applications used by millions of women.
The long-term effects involve a potential expansion of government authority into private medical and family decisions. If the 14th Amendment is interpreted to include prenatal persons, it would establish a national precedent requiring states to prosecute abortion as homicide. The next steps for these policies depend on future court rulings and legislative actions in both state capitals and the U.S. Congress, as advocates continue to push for federal recognition of conception-based rights. The specific effective dates for new federal legislation or further Supreme Court rulings on the 14th Amendment were not reported.