Advocates call for end to discriminatory nonconsensual drug testing of pregnant people
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2021
ORANGE COUNTY – The New York Civil Liberties Union and National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) filed state Division of Human Rights (DHR) complaints on behalf of Crystal H. and Jane Doe, respectively, who were drug tested without consent when giving birth at Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown, New York.
NAPW Executive Director Lynn M Paltrow and Consulting Policy Counsel Deborah Small present at the Meharry Medical College: Henry W. Foster OBGYN Interest Group Reproductive Justice Conference.
www.NationalAdvocatesforPregantWomen.org
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Adora Perez was charged with murder in 2018 after she delivered a stillborn baby at Adventist Hospital in Hanford, California. District Attorney Keith Fagundes claimed, without scientific basis, that the stillbirth was caused by methamphetamine use. Penal Code Section 187 punishes the “unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.
Brittney Poolaw, a 20-year-old Oklahoma woman, was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree for experiencing a miscarriage at 17 weeks. She was sentenced to 4 years in state prison. Contrary to all medical science, the prosecutor blamed the miscarriage on Brittney’s alleged use of controlled substances.
On Tuesday, October 5, Brittney Poolaw, a 20-year-old Oklahoma woman, was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree for experiencing a miscarriage at 17 weeks and sentenced to 4 years in state prison.
Last year, Ms. Poolaw experienced a miscarriage and went to Comanche County Hospital for medical help.
In 2013, the Journal of Public Health Law and Policy published National Advocates for Pregnant Women (“NAPW”) peer-reviewed study documenting arrests, detentions, and equivalent deprivations of physical liberty of women between 1973 and 2005 in which being pregnant was a necessary element of the crime or a “but for” reason for the coercive or punitive action taken.
Carefully constructed, unbiased scientific research has not found that prenatal exposure to any criminalized drugs cause specific or unique harms. While there are numerous studies reporting findings that certain substances may increase a particular risk of harm, such as [lower birth weight], research has not found that any criminalized substances are abortifacients, cause miscarriages or stillbirths, or cause specific harms or impairments to the children prenatally exposed.
Download the chart here.
NAPW has filed a renewed Motion to Dismiss (MTD) on behalf of our client Kim Blalock, an Alabama mother who was charged with prescription fraud for taking medication prescribed by her physician to manage chronic back pain while pregnant. We recently won a motion seeking more information from the prosecutor, requiring them to detail Ms. Blalock’s alleged wrongdoing.
Hyperemesis Gravidarum Is a Life-Threatening Pregnancy Condition
For Immediate Release: July 6, 2021
On Friday, July 1, National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), as lead amici, asked an Arizona Court of Appeals to accept their brief on behalf of 45 leading health organizations, doctors, ethicists, scientific and medical experts, and advocates, including Amy Schumer, in support of Lindsay R., a mother found guilty of civil child neglect and placed on Arizona’s Child Abuse Central Registry because she used medical marijuana while pregnant pursuant to a valid medical certification and suffered from acute hyperemesis gravidarum.
