Check Back Frequently to Catch Up on the Latest News By and About NAPW
Last week, National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) filed an amicus brief (“friend of the court”) in support of Rinat Dray in her ongoing fight for justice following unconsented and forced cesarean surgery at Northwell Health’s Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH).
Since 1914, New York State Courts have recognized that “Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body.
People who have abortions and people who give birth are often the same people, just at different points of their lives. So why are abortion services and birth services kept so separated? In a radical act of expansion, CHOICES has become the first non-profit health care provider in the county to offer both birth services and abortion care under one roof.
The U.S. is experiencing a Black Maternal Mortality Crisis, where 1 in 4 women of color report mistreatment during birth. In this webinar Efe Osaren, a Nigerian-American Student Midwife, Full Spectrum Doula and Reproductive/Birth Justice Advocate discusses real solutions, shares the joys of home birth midwifery, and answers 77 questions from students.
Call Your Senators and Tell Them to Oppose Barrett's Confirmation
In 2006, President Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Amy Coney Barrett, signed an advertisement announcing a commitment not only to ending abortion but also to defending “the right to life from the moment of fertilization until natural death.
Victory for Latice Fisher in Mississippi
In Mississippi, Latice Fisher was charged with second degree murder after she experienced a pregnancy loss at home. She reached out to NAPW directly asking for help, and we responded immediately. We quickly joined forces with Laurie Bertram Roberts of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund and Color of Change to help get Ms. Fisher’s bail lowered and released from jail and to put pressure on the prosecutor, Scott Colom, to drop the charge.
Chelsea Becker remains in Kings County jail charged with murder under California Penal Code §187 for having a stillbirth
On Friday, August 7, 2020, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief stating that California Penal Code §187 does not authorize prosecutors to treat pregnancy losses as crimes of murder, and called for the criminal charges against Chelsea Becker to be dropped.
Exciting News!!
Personhood, a feature documentary film, has been awarded the American Bar Association's 2020 Silver Gavel Award for Media and the Arts. PERSONHOOD focuses on the case of Tamara Loertscher, who brought a federal lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s Unborn Child Protection Act (Act 292) with NAPW, the NYU School of Law Reproductive Justice Clinic, and Perkins-Coie as her lawyers.
CALL TO URGENT ACTION:
Demand that Kings County, California District Attorney Keith L. Fagundes dismiss the murder charge against Chelsea Becker!
On November 6, 2019, Chelsea Becker was arrested and charged with murder under California Penal Code §187. Ms. Becker had experienced a stillbirth that the prosecutor claims (without any scientific basis) was caused by her methamphetamine use during pregnancy.
National Advocates for Pregnant Women mourns the death of George Floyd and the death of every Black person murdered by police forces in the United States. We recognize the systemic problem of police brutality and join the Black Lives Matter movement in calling for immediate and radical change.
On May 8, 2020, Frontiers in Psychology published, Totality of the Evidence Suggests Prenatal Cannabis Exposure Does Not Lead to Cognitive Impairments: A Systematic and Critical Review, a peer-reviewed systematic review on the effects of prenatal exposure to marijuana.
