Dear Friends and Allies,
Why support National Advocates for Pregnant Women? Because none of us would be here without them.
The fact is none of us would be here without someone who became pregnant and gave birth. Yet the health care pregnant people need to survive and to thrive (and what the survival of the species requires) is categorized separately as reproductive health - as if it is something that only a small "special interest" subgroup of humans need.
Dear Friends and Allies,
As many of you know, on June 26, a grand jury in Alabama indicted Marshae Jones for the crime of manslaughter because she experienced a pregnancy loss that she allegedly caused by being unable to protect herself from being shot in the stomach while 5 months pregnant.
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.
