January 25, 2013
Executive Summary: Download file.
Published Full Article: Download file.
National Advocates for Pregnant Women’s one-of-a-kind study identifies hundreds of criminal and civil cases involving the arrests, detentions and equivalent deprivations of pregnant women’s physical liberty that occurred between 1973 and 2005, after the decision in Roe v. Wade was issued.
January 25, 2013
Lynn Paltrow and Jeanne Flavin
Abstract: In November 2011, the citizens of Mississippi voted down Proposition 26, a “personhood” measure that sought to establish separate constitutional rights for fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses.
On January 15, 2013, the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law published a study, "Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women in the United States, 1973-2005: Implications for Women's Legal Status and Public Health," written by Lynn M. Paltrow, NAPW Executive Director, and Jeanne Flavin, Professor of Sociology at Fordham University and NAPW Board President.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 7, 2012
CONTACT: Emma Ketteringham
212-255-9252 or 917-991-4943
50 Leading Medical, Public Health, and Child Welfare Organizations and Experts To Argue to NJ Supreme Court on Monday that Family Courts Should Insist on Science Not Stigma
Junk Science No Basis for Child Neglect and Abuse Finding
TRENTON, NJ (September 10, 2012): On September 10, 2012, at 10:00 a.m., the Supreme Court of New Jersey will hear argument from Lawrence S. Lustberg, Esq.
Project Prevention, originally known as C.R.A.C.K. (Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity) is often described as a program that offers $300 for current and former drug users to get sterilized or to use certain long-acting birth control methods. It was founded by Barbara Harris.
This weekend, National Advocates for Pregnant Women's work and perspectives are featured in the New York Times Magazine. The story, The Criminalization of Bad Mothers, focuses on pregnant drug using women who are being prosecuted under Alabama's Chemical Endangerment Act - a law intended to punish adults who bring children to environments where illegal drugs are being made.
NAPW has, for some time, been encouraging attorneys who represent mothers in civil child neglect proceedings ("family defense lawyers") to challenge neglect and abuse charges based on positive drug tests.
These cases often involve women who give birth and have their newborns taken from them based on nothing more than an unconfirmed positive test for an illegal drug.
An article in the Globe and Mail, fans the flames of "pill-baby" hysteria. NAPW ally and renowned expert on treating opioid-dependence during pregnancy, Dr. Robert Newman, takes the article to task for its biased portrayal of opioid users and their babies.
On June 17, 2011, WORTH - Women on the Rise Telling HerStory hosted a roundtable panel discussion reflecting on 40 years of a failed drug war that has destroyed lives and families. Moderator asha bandele asked panelist Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) to reflect on the meaning of the word "motherhood" in the context of the war on drugs.
cross-posted to RH Reality Check
Last week, the Washington Post’s On Faith blog ran a post in its Guest Voices series which posed the question of whether abortion is always morally wrong, and whether “religious conservatives really believe God gives them permission to pretend this world is far simpler than it is.
