Grace Elizabeth Howard

Associate Professor of Justice Studies, San Jose State University

Areas of Expertise:

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About Grace

Howard's areas of expertise include the criminalization of pregnancy and the regulation of abortion in the United States. Her book, The Pregnancy Police: Conceiving Crime, Arresting Personhood, is forthcoming with the University of California Press.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Alabama’s Total Abortion Ban and the Red Flag You Missed

Meghan Eagen-Torkko

Commentary, May 2019

The Future of Criminal Prosecution for Self-Induced Abortion and Pregnancy Endangerment

Basic Facts Brief, October 2018

Publications

"The Pregnancy Police: Conceiving Crime, Arresting Personhood" (University of California Press, 2024).

Explores how pregnant individuals were prosecuted for harming fetuses before Roe v. Wade, and examines the intricate network of healthcare providers, social workers, and legal personnel involved in the surveillance and punishment of pregnant people. Traces the history of state attempts to regulate and control pregnancy, from early 20th-century eugenics to current trends in abortion criminalization.

"The Pregnancy Police: Surveillance, Regulation, and Control". Harvard Law & Policy Review" Harvard Law & Policy Review 14, no. 2 (2020): 347-363.

Examines the surveillance, regulation, and control of people with the capacity for pregnancy. Argues that pregnant people as a class face discrimination in law, policy, and practice— what Howard calls pregnancy exceptionalism. Shows how healthcare providers have become part of the apparatus of criminalizing pregnancy.

"Illegitimate Appetites: Michelle Obama's Let's Move Campaign as Sexual Regulation" in Black Women in Politics, edited by Nikol Alexander-Floyd and Julia Jordan-Zachery (State University of New York Press, 2018).

Explores Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign as a sexual deracialization strategy.

"Informed or Misinformed Consent? Abortion Policy in the States" (with Cynthia R. Daniels, Janna Ferguson, and Amanda Roberti). Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 41, no. 2 (2016): 181-209.

Evaluates state-mandated informed consent materials using the legal standard of true and non-misleading.

"The Gender of Crime" (with Dana Britton and Shannon Jacobsen) (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).

Provides a broad overview of gender as it relates to crime, including criminal justice institutions, the law, victimization, perpetration, and employment in criminal justice systems.

"The Criminalization of Pregnancy: Rights, Discretion, and the Law," (with Cynthia R. Daniels, Lisa Miller, Nikol Alexander-Floyd, and Dorothy Roberts), Rutgers University, July 1, 2017.

Examines the criminal prosecution of pregnant women for crimes against the fetuses they gestate, and asks how much the law truly matters.

"The Limits of Pure White: Raced Reproduction in the Methamphetamine Crisis" Women's Rights Law Reporter 35, no. 3 (2013).

Examines similarities between the criminal prosecution of pregnant women for using methamphetamine and the early eugenics movement in the United States.