Lynn M. Paltrow is an attorney and founder of Pregnancy Justice, formerly National Advocates for Pregnant Women. She is an author and coauthor of numerous articles, studies, and commentaries addressing the intersection of the wars on drugs, abortion, women and all those with the capacity for pregnancy.

Harm reduction principles have not only been used in the United States to advance drug policy reform, they have also been adapted to help achieve reproductive justice. This effort demonstrates positive steps toward cross-issue collaboration and improved public health. Nevertheless, the 2022 US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, erasing the right to abortion, threatens to expand the war on drugs and undermine successful harm reduction strategies for drug users as well as all those with the capacity for pregnancy.

In the U.S. two drugs mifepristone and misoprostol (“M&M”) account for 63% of all abortions. In 2024 Louisiana became the first US state to classify these medications as controlled substances making their possession without a prescription a crime punishable by fines of up to $5,000 or imprisonment of up to "five years with or without hard labor." This means that Louisiana residents who are already subject to a ban abortions face arrest for obtaining the pills from out of state or because they ordered them online without a prescription. This criminalization will also have a significant chilling effect making it harder to obtain these drugs even when they are prescribed for purposes other than abortion including treating miscarriages and stomach ulcers. Anti-abortion advocates in the United States also want to resuscitate the federal Comstock Law to criminalize interstate mailing and receiving of “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” writings, or “any article or thing designed or intended for procuring an abortion.” At the same time, US anti-abortion claims of fetal rights are fueling an increasing number of arrests of pregnant women and new mothers who use any amount of any criminalized drug including marijuana.

This presentation will examine these intersecting threats to drug policy and reproductive justice and why collaboration across movements is necessary to advance harm reduction and non-punitive public health approaches.