This event is hosted by the Marshall Project.

In addition to the rollback of abortion rights in many states, pregnant people are being monitored and policed in other ways that The Marshall Project has been extensively covering. The Marshall Project will host a webinar to walk you through our reporting and offer guidance on how to do this investigative work in your own community.

You’ll hear from Shoshana Walter and Jill Castellano, whose recent investigation uncovered more than 70,000 births in 21 states that triggered referrals to law enforcement over alleged substance use during pregnancy — even though these reports are often based on unreliable hospital drug tests that yield false positive results or are easily misinterpreted.

When this happens, women can be interrogated by police shortly after giving birth, jailed and prosecuted for testing positive due to legal substances, such as poppy seeds, CBD gummies to alleviate nausea, and even the fentanyl from their epidurals. This investigation also includes a reporting toolkit to help journalists and researchers dig into this issue locally.

The event will be moderated by Cary Aspinwall, who uncovered how miscarriages and stillbirths are being investigated as crimes in several states. Her reporting shows that how a person handles a pregnancy loss — and where it occurs — can be the difference between a private medical issue and a criminal charge for abuse of a corpse, child neglect or even murder. Aspinwall's investigations have found that a positive drug test after a pregnancy loss can result in criminal charges for the parent, and even prison time. And even when babies are born healthy, laws embracing the concept of fetal personhood are putting people behind bars.

This training event will be recorded and is part of Investigate This!, which shares criminal justice datasets and other investigative resources with journalists and researchers.