Gun Violence Against Pregnant Women Is Highest in These States

A new study finds that pregnant women are more likely to be killed by gun violence in certain states

A pregnant woman’s likelihood of a gun causing her death depends on where she lives — in some states, the risk is much higher.

There is “substantial state variation” in the number of women who die from gun violence either while pregnant, or within one year of giving birth, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Of the 10,715 deaths that occurred from  2018 to 2022, 76% of homicides were caused by firearms.

Mississippi had the highest rate of pregnancy-associated murders. Although the state offers gun permits, they are not required to purchase or carry guns, according to the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. Mississippi also has a near-total ban on abortions. 

Following Mississippi, Missouri (which does not require permits), Georgia (which does not require permits), and South Carolina (which does not require permits) all had higher rates of pregnancy-associated homicide via firearms.

“If it were entirely due to biological factors, we wouldn’t see any state-level differences, so we know for sure, it’s something beyond biology,” study author Jaquelyn Jahn, a social epidemiologist at Drexel University, told The Trace. “How can the maternal care environment differ so much; how do the policy environments differ; how do the histories differ, which could all potentially affect whether pregnant people in those states live or die.”

As Jahn added, “One really striking thing from this analysis is that it just shows the extent of firearms and the role of firearms in pregnancy-associated homicides,” Jahn said. “It’s really an alarming number of cases regarding homicide.”

And that number may be a lowball, the study notes, given that it only included cases where pregnancy status was known; nearly 47% of death records say pregnancy status is “unknown.”

“All counts and rates reported in our tables are conservative underestimates of the true magnitude of pregnancy-associated mortality in each state,” the study says. 

Study lead Maeve Wallace, a perinatal epidemiologist at the University of Arizona, told The Trace, “Every death, every number that you see in these types of publications could have been prevented … This is not an inevitable situation and we have to underscore that there are ways that we can prevent this.”