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.
Anti-abortion measures infringe on the constitutional rights and the personhood of all women. Anti-abortion ideology is used to justify forced medical interventions on pregnant women and arrests and detentions of pregnant women who have experienced pregnancy losses, disagreed with doctor’s advice, or had or attempted to have an abortion.
The New York Times Series " A Woman's Rights"
March 11, 2019
The New York Times Editorial Board published the groundbreaking series "A Woman's Rights" on December 28, 2018. Please find the entire series here.
You can read each part of the series and download individual PDFs below:
Download Intro: A Woman's Rights
Download Part 1: When Prosecutors Jail a Mother for a Miscarriage
Download Part 2: The Feticide Playbook, Explained
Download Part 3: The Cost of Complacency About Roe
Download Part 4: Slandering the Unborn
Download Part 5: The Mothers Society Condemns
Download Part 6: Can a Corpse Give Birth?
Download Part 7: How My Stillbirth Became a Crime
Download Part 8: The Future of Personhood Nation
February 21, 2019
Broadening the Conversation About and Celebration of New York’s Reproductive Health Act (RHA)• The RHA protects and values all women – including those who support abortion rights, those who profoundly oppose them, and everyone in between.
Arkansas v. Anne Bynum
Pregnancy Justice represented Anne Bynum as counsel on her successful direct criminal appeal. In Arkansas, local law enforcement alleged that Ms. Bynum took misoprostol pills to induce an abortion (although in fact she planned to deliver the baby, and had an adoption plan in place) . Her pregnancy ended in a stillbirth late at night while she was in her home . Following the stillbirth, she safeguarded the remains and slept for several hours before helping to get her son ready and off to school.
Oklahoma District Attorney Craig Ladd publicly announced [in December 2017] that he is calling for the increased prosecution of women who are pregnant and alleged to have used controlled substances, despite his knowledge that such prosecutions are not legally supported.
Pregnancy Justice, along with 11 other organizations and 27 individual experts, submitted an Open Letter to the Madison County, Indiana prosecutor, asking him to drop felony charges against a woman who experienced a stillbirth at home. An Indiana woman who experienced a pregnancy loss is being prosecuted for feticide and involuntary manslaughter, based on her alleged drug use while pregnant.
Pregnancy Justice is in the Ohio Supreme Court supporting a young woman charged with homicide after experiencing a stillbirth. For now, the issue is whether her confidential statements to her doctors while she was pregnant can be admitted into evidence against her at trial.
December 19, 2018
Pregnancy Justice’s work is highlighted in this important Amnesty International report. Click here to access Amnesty International’s report: "Criminalizing Pregnancy: Policing Pregnant Women Who Use Drugs in the USA".
Over the course of three years, Amnesty International analyzed US criminal prosecutions of women who are pregnant and alleged to use drugs.
