For Immediate Release: May 20, 2021
Today, Kings County Superior Court Judge Robert Shane Burns dismissed the murder charge against our client, Chelsea Becker. This outcome is a major victory in her 19-month legal battle challenging the legitimacy of a murder charge for experiencing a stillbirth.
Experts Address the Rights of Pregnant Patients to Informed Consent, Bodily Integrity, and Medical Decision Making
What happens when a pregnant patient exercises their right to medical decision making? Is there any justification to override a pregnant patient’s consent? Join NAPW for a discussion featuring leaders in bioethics, medicine, law and birth justice about pregnant patients' rights to informed consent, bodily integrity, and medical decision making and the trauma that forced medical interventions can inflict on pregnant people.
Today, National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), with local counsel Brian White, filed a motion to dismiss an indictment against Kimberly Blalock, a mother in Lauderdale County, Alabama.
Ms. Blalock gave birth to a healthy baby on September 29, 2020. She has taken hydrocodone for approximately four years to manage chronic back pain due to the degeneration of discs in her back.
On March 9, 2021, Kings County Superior Court Judge Robert Shane Burns granted Chelsea Becker’s request to be released on her own recognizance so that she can enter a residential treatment facility, but her legal fight continues.
In 2019, Ms. Becker experienced a stillbirth, which Kings County District Attorney Keith L. Fagundes claims, without scientific basis, was caused by methamphetamine use.
On February 20, 2021, in response to a request by the Biden-Harris Administration for input on its drug policy priorities, NAPW submitted comments to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the government entity that leads and coordinates U.S. drug policy.
On December 24, 2020, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article that included incorrect and dangerously misleading information about a recent California Supreme Court order in Chelsea Becker’s case. The article erroneously reported, “Court refuses to bar woman’s murder prosecution for death of fetus, a loss for Becerra.
Having already written a statement challenging false and stigmatizing medical misinformation advanced in the context of the nationwide litigation seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies liable for the over- prescription of opioids in the U.S., NAPW followed up with a letter regarding distribution of funds from Perdue’s bankruptcy settlement related to claims about its role in the national opioid addiction and overdose crisis.
Deborah Frank M.D. Affidavit
This week, National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), with local counsel Megan Hayes, filed an amicus brief in the Wyoming Supreme Court on behalf of thirteen experts in and advocates for maternal, infant, and child health in support of Leigha Stewart.
Read NAPW’s fact sheet “Understanding CAPTA and State Obligations” for information on the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and what it does and does not require.
