Fetal protection legislation in the United States refers to laws designed to grant recognition as a "legal person" to a fetus. Such legislation is controversial because of the debate over abortion rights in the US.

Forces seeking to restrict abortion rights have seemingly adopted a strategy of promoting laws that protect both a pregnant woman and her "unborn child", with the indirect aim of reversing Roe v. Wade. For example, kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach, so that she has a miscarriage, would become a special category of crime. Not only would it become more heinous a crime to kick a pregnant woman than to kick a man or a woman who was not pregnant, but it would recognize or "create" a right seen as inherent in the fetus; in effect, granting it "personhood".

Laws against certain types of abortion procedures would also seem to fall into this category.

See also