Fetal abduction refers to the rare crime of child abduction by kidnapping of an at term pregnant woman and extraction of her fetus through a crude cesarean section. Dr. Michael H. Stone and Dr. Gary Brucato have alternatively referred to this crime as "fetus-snatching" or "fetus abduction." Homicide expert Vernon J. Geberth has used the term "fetal kidnapping." In the small number of reported cases, a few pregnant victims and about half of their fetuses survived the assault and non-medically performed cesarean. Fetal abduction does not refer to medically induced labor or obstetrical extraction. The definition of the subject does not include compulsory cesarean sections for medical reasons nor child removal from parents for court-approved child protection. However, the "Children of the Disappeared" (desaparecidos) in the Argentine Dirty War are an example of criminal fetal abduction in state institutions as detailed by testimonies on cesarean delivery on desaparecidas and child adoption in a military hospital. Historical cases of cesarean extraction for fetal murder (not for child adoption) fall outside the subject definition. Fetal abductions typically start with the lie that the perpetrator is pregnant and often coincide with a fear of losing a romantic partner. Then the perpetrator murders a pregnant woman to claim the fetus as her own (as a stillborn baby or, if the fetus survives, as a newborn child).

Abductor profile

Fetal abduction is mostly perpetrated by women, usually after organized planning. The abductor may befriend the pregnant victim. In some cases, the abductor impersonates a pregnant woman and later a puerperal mother, using weight gain and a prosthesis to fake a pregnancy and cutting of the reproductive organs to replicate injuries gained during birth. Some abductors then take the neonate to a hospital. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s spokesperson, Cathy Nahirny, stated in 2007, “Many times the abductor fakes a pregnancy and when it is time to deliver the baby, must abduct someone else's child”. Criminal motives include delusions of fulfilling a partner relationship, child-bearing and childbirth.

Statistics

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recorded 18 cases of fetal abductions in the United States between 1983 and 2015, which represented 6% of the 302 recorded cases of infant abduction.

List of reported cases and attempts

Out of the 25 documented cases of fetal abduction, excluding attempts, there have been 4 instances where the mothers survived and 13 where the fetus survived. This list distinguishes actual abductions from attempted abductions. An attempt can involve severe harm inflicted on both the mother and fetus, but it does not result in the mother's murder or the extraction of the fetus.

Fetal abduction cases

1987

1995

1996

1998

2000

2003

2004

2006

2008

2009

2011

2013

2015

2017

2019

2020

2022

Fetal abduction attempts

2009