NAPW's Work

Picture: Lynn M. Paltrow with Ferguson Plaintiff Paula Hale
at the U.S. Supreme Court (more…)

Drug use and pregnancy are sensitive subjects that are often addressed without the opportunity to hear from experts. Please view our webinar featuring medical experts who discuss evidence-based research on drug use, addiction, and pregnancy. In addition, local legal and community advocates offer insight into the current responses to drug use and pregnancy in the Central Valley and approaches that will advance maternal, fetal, and child health.

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.

Download the Petition for Writ of Prohibition July 2020

Download the Renewed Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

Download Exhibits in Support of Petition for Writ of Prohibition July 2020

Download Exhibits to Renewed Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus_compressed

Download the DPA's amicus brief in the writ of prohibition

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.

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.

Join Indra Lusero (Staff Attorney) and Kendall Bentsen (Organizer) from National Advocates for Pregnant Women, as they discuss the civil and human rights you have in the hospital during childbirth as well as the limitations of those rights in practice. This webinar includes an extensive Q&A session as well as an interactive quiz that will take you through the twists and turns of a birth experience in a hospital and test if you know your own birth rights.

Register Here!

Join Indra Lusero (Staff Attorney) and Kendall Bentsen (Organizer) from National Advocates for Pregnant Women, as they discuss the civil and human rights you have in the hospital during childbirth as well as the limitations of those rights in practice.