Last week the Huffingtonpost and RhRealitycheck ran our latest commentary Concerned about coerced abortion? Try saying no to Cesarean Surgery, discussing legislation in twelve states that claims to protect pregnant women from coercion when they seek abortions but ignores real evidence of the fact that women in labor and childbirth are too often denied the opportunity to make fully informed decisions.

We knew that our recent commentary and video that challenges PersonhoodUSA was likely to draw fire from the Right. We were not mistaken. Shortly after releasing our video and commentary, Andrea Lafferty, President of the Traditional Values Coalition, wrote a response seeking to discredit National Advocates for Pregnant Women by "exposing" our work on behalf of drug using pregnant women.

According to Personhood USA, legislators in at least five states are sponsoring bills that would give the unborn full state constitutional rights from the moment of fertilization.

To answer this and related questions National Advocates for Pregnant Women and more than 60 organizational and individual co-sponsors are holding the National Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women, January 18- Sunday, January 21, 2007 at the Hilton Airport Atlanta, Atlanta, GA.

There are over twenty plenaries and workshops at the Summit addressing the question of how we do or do not value pregnant women and mothers.

In November of this year Hartford Courant Commentator, Helen Ubiñas contacted NAPW about Barbara Harris and her latest efforts in Connecticut. NAPW was able to provide this thinking journalist with extensive background information about the program and the letter on the "crack baby" myth from the leading researchers in the field.

Demonstrating an extraordinary interest in finding common ground and addressing the shared concerns of pregnant and birthing women -- more than 50 organizations have signed on as formal co-sponsors of this groundbreaking event.

The World Health Organization considers acceptable levels for cesarean rates as not less than 5% and not more than 15% of all deliveries. Yet approximately 28% of all US births are by cesarean delivery, accounting for approximately one million cesareans a year.

It's a Miracle--Not!
February 27, 2006

The Pax Cable Television Station had a show called It's a Miracle purporting to report on real miracles. This particular episode concerned a family who adopted a so called "crack" baby that miraculously turned out to be fine despite the damage the prenatal cocaine exposure allegedly caused.

May 20, 2005

By Lisa Collier Cool, Baby Talk magazine, May, 2005

Amber Marlowe anticipated an easy delivery when she went into labor on January 14, 2004. But after a routine ultrasound, doctors at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, in Pennsylvania, decided that the baby--at what looked like 13 pounds--was too big to deliver vaginally and told her that she needed to have a cesarean.

COERCIVE MEDICINE
March 21, 2004

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By: Lynn M. Paltrow, TomPaine.com, posted March 21, 2004

An arrest in Utah last week of a 28-year-old woman who allegedly committed murder by refusing to undergo a C-section represents a shocking abuse of state authority and a dangerous disregard for medical ethics.