Statements

Some reports following New York’s passage of the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) asserted that the RHA somehow increases the risk of gender violence. NAPW and Professor Julie Goldscheid (CUNY Law School) authored a statement challenging those claims, and other false claims linking laws criminalizing abortion and related feticide laws with protection of women from violence.

Today thousands of New Yorkers and others in the U.S. and from around the world are demanding that Northwell Health eliminate policies and practices that authorize forced or coerced medical interventions on pregnant patients in their facilities. Through a petition organized by National Advocates for Pregnant Women and delivered today to Northwell’s CEO and Board of Trustees, thousands of people join in calling on Northwell to ensure that no pregnant patient is again denied her constitutional and statutory rights to medical decision-making and bodily integrity as Rinat Dray was at Northwell's Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH).

Eight years after being forced to have cesarean surgery which injured her bladder, Rinat Dray has sued but has not received justice.

Update: On July 3, District Attorney Lynneice Washington did the right thing by announcing her office would not pursue any criminal charges against Ms. Jones.

On June 27, prosecutors in Alabama unsealed an indictment for manslaughter against Marshae Jones based on the claim that being pregnant and being the victim of what would ordinarily be viewed as a crime, is itself a crime.

NAPW Public Education in the Classroom and Beyond (Fall 2018)
December 21, 2018
Over the last few months, NAPW has had the opportunity to speak to students, faculty members and the public around the country on a range of issues, including: birth justice, the criminalization of pregnancy, gender-discriminatory advanced directive laws, obstetric violence and more.

December 21, 2018
Both supporters and opponents of Alabama Amendment 2 (on the ballot November 2018) described it as a constitutional amendment that would remove all protection for abortion from the Alabama State Constitution. But NAPW recognized that Amendment 2 in its own words would do much more than just impact abortion: Amendment 2 would make it state policy--under all of Alabama's laws--to "recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children.

The long and twisted prosecution of Anne Bynum has finally been resolved without a new trial and without a conviction for any crime.

In 2015, Arkansas law enforcement officials apparently believed that Anne Bynum had taken steps to have an abortion at home.

On September 20, 2018, feticide and involuntary manslaughter charges were dismissed against Kelli Driskel. In December of 2017, Ms. Driskel went to the emergency room after experiencing a stillbirth at home. An autopsy was later performed on the fetal remains and the cause of death was determined to be placental abruption with "acute methamphetamine intoxication" listed as a contributing factor.

Alabama’s Ballot Measure Would Impact All Pregnant Women and People Who Want to Be Pregnant

Voters in Alabama must defeat Amendment 2. The ballot measure’s supporters claim that it will only impact abortion. But Amendment 2 would make it state policy—under all of Alabama’s laws—to “recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children.