Women face a much higher risk of homicide, especially from guns, during pregnancy

A new study found that pregnant women experienced a 37% higher firearm homicide rate than women who aren’t pregnant. SDI Productions/iStockphoto/Getty Images

On April 9, 2020, after Shirley Scarborough called the prayer line like she did every morning, when she went to work she got a call from the police department in Richmond, Virginia. In a meeting, they said her youngest daughter, Francesca Harris-Scarborough, had been killed the night before. Police had found the 31-year-old’s car still idling.

Scarborough’s daughter, who was three months pregnant, had been shot twice in the heart.

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

Francesca is part of a terrible trend in the United States: Homicide is the No. 1 way pregnant women di