NAPW's Work

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.

Dear Friends and Allies,

As the spring season offers hope of a new start, we are grateful for science, vaccines, and the possibility of reconnecting in person with our friends, colleagues, and loved ones. But as we enter this season, it is imperative that we don’t lose sight of the vast inequalities exposed during pandemic.

Webinar Recording: Anti-Abortion and Pro-Insurrection: How White Supremacists, Male Supremacists, and Anti-Abortionists Converged at the Capitol

Dr. Carol Mason and Professor Loretta J. Ross explain connections between the insurrectionary right and anti-abortion ideology, both of which are fueled by racism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny.

On Wednesday, NAPW's Organizer Kendall Bentsen testified against Texas HB 1171, a dangerous bill that would appoint an attorney ad litem or guardian ad litem for a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus when Texas minors are trying to obtain an abortion through judicial bypass.

On March 17, 2020, Lynn M. Paltrow, Founder and Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, testified before the Arizona House Judiciary in opposition to Senate Bill 1457, which, among other things, would require that the Arizona constitution be construed to acknowledge, “on behalf of an unborn child at every stage of development, all rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens and residents of this state.

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 10 and 11, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights heard oral arguments in the case of Manuela et al. v. El Salvador. El Salvador has an absolute abortion ban. Under that law, women who have abortions go to jail along with women like Manuela who, in 2008, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after suffering a miscarriage.

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.