Gun violence now a leading threat to pregnant women, study finds

Pregnant women in the United States face a serious and growing danger from gun violence, according to a new study that examined thousands of homicides nationwide.

Researchers looked at more than 7,000 homicides of women between the ages of 15 and 49. The review, which spanned from 2018 to 2021, found that pregnant women had a 37% higher risk of being killed with a firearm than women who were not pregnant.

The findings were published Nov. 10 in JAMA Network Open.

More than two-thirds of all pregnancy-related homicides involved guns, the study showed.

“It was really not surprising, if you think about it, that if firearms are more available, then that certainly it does increase your risk of homicide in general,” study co-author Dr. Lois Lee told CNN. She’s an associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“If you could imagine,” she added, “If you take away or at least decrease the number of firearms, then there would likely be many fewer deaths during pregnancy.”

The study also found that even small increases in gun ownership made a difference. For every 1% rise in firearm ownership, states saw a 6% increase in overall homicide and an 8% increase in firearm-specific homicide among pregnant women.

Lee said that makes these deaths both “predictable and potentially preventable.”

The highest number of firearm homicides among pregnant women occurred in women between 20 and 24 years of age, researchers said.

Across all ages, most victims were Black women.

“Those findings suggest that these risks of homicide during pregnancy are shaped not just by individual factors but by broader systems of inequity and structural racism,” Lee said. “So it’s not just a solution at the individual level that’s needed, but there needs to be urgent change at a policy level, as well.”

Gun violence experts say stronger firearm surrender laws could help protect women who are experiencing intimate partner violence.

While most states prevent people with final protective orders from buying guns, many do not require them to give up guns already in their possession.

“Usually, the first stage of that order process is often the most dangerous time for individuals experiencing intimate partner or family violence, since it is usually the first indication that an individual is going to be separating from an abuser,” Kelly Roskam of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions told CNN.

Roskam said the most successful surrender laws also have strong follow-up.

She pointed to a program in King County, Washington, where courts, prosecutors and law enforcement work together to recover guns involved in domestic violence cases.

The county reported that firearms are used in more domestic violence homicides than any other weapon in the state.

For Shirley Scarborough, these statistics are painfully personal.

Her 31-year-old daughter, Francesca Harris-Scarborough, who was three months pregnant, was shot and killed in 2020.

Police found her car still running.

“I wasn’t ready for it,” Scarborough told CNN. “I lost control of everything. … Everything went blank.”

She has since launched a nonprofit in Virginia called Cry Loud, Spare Not, Speak Up, which supports women who are experiencing domestic violence. She also created self-esteem programs for girls and young women.

“This way she will never die. We can always try to help somebody,” Scarborough added. “Her death has really been my teacher. It’s changed my life. It will never be the same.”

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