Advocates call for end to discriminatory nonconsensual drug testing of pregnant people
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2021
ORANGE COUNTY – The New York Civil Liberties Union and Pregnancy Justice filed state Division of Human Rights (DHR) complaints on behalf of Crystal H. and Jane Doe, respectively, who were drug tested without consent when giving birth at Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown, New York.
Adora Perez was charged with murder in 2018 after she delivered a stillborn baby at Adventist Hospital in Hanford, California. District Attorney Keith Fagundes claimed, without scientific basis, that the stillbirth was caused by methamphetamine use. Penal Code Section 187 punishes the “unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.
On Tuesday, October 5, Brittney Poolaw, a 20-year-old Oklahoma woman, was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree for experiencing a miscarriage at 17 weeks and sentenced to 4 years in state prison.
Last year, Ms. Poolaw experienced a miscarriage and went to Comanche County Hospital for medical help.
Dear Friends and Allies,
I am guessing that the disastrous developments happening in Texas and the Supreme Court have already caught your attention. But just in case: a few weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court did not stop a plainly unconstitutional six-week abortion ban, Texas’s SB8, from going into effect.
On September 20, 2021, Pregnancy Justice, with co-counsel David Goldberg, partner at Donahue, Goldberg, and Littleton, filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in support of Respondents’ challenge to Mississippi’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Pregnancy Justice has filed a renewed Motion to Dismiss (MTD) on behalf of our client Kim Blalock, an Alabama mother who was charged with prescription fraud for taking medication prescribed by her physician to manage chronic back pain while pregnant. We recently won a motion seeking more information from the prosecutor, requiring them to detail Ms. Blalock’s alleged wrongdoing.
Hyperemesis Gravidarum Is a Life-Threatening Pregnancy Condition
For Immediate Release: July 6, 2021
On Friday, July 1, Pregnancy Justice, as lead amici, asked an Arizona Court of Appeals to accept their brief on behalf of 45 leading health organizations, doctors, ethicists, scientific and medical experts, and advocates, including Amy Schumer, in support of Lindsay R., a mother found guilty of civil child neglect and placed on Arizona’s Child Abuse Central Registry because she used medical marijuana while pregnant pursuant to a valid medical certification and suffered from acute hyperemesis gravidarum.
Missed the webinar but still looking for CE or DONA credit? Good news – you can watch the recording and still receive credits up until July 21st.
Watch the webinar recording and be sure to fill out the NASW affirmation form to obtain Wisconsin social work credit or DONA credit.
Today, Pregnancy Justice, 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.
