Brittney Poolaw, a 20-year-old Oklahoma woman, was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree for experiencing a miscarriage at 17 weeks. She was sentenced to 4 years in state prison. Contrary to all medical science, the prosecutor blamed the miscarriage on Brittney’s alleged use of controlled substances.

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.

In 2013, the Journal of Public Health Law and Policy published Pregnancy Justice's (then National Advocates for Pregnant Women) peer-reviewed study documenting arrests, detentions, and equivalent deprivations of physical liberty of women between 1973 and 2005 in which being pregnant was a necessary element of the crime or a “but for” reason for the coercive or punitive action taken.

For Immediate Release: May 20, 2021

Today, Kings County Superior Court Judge Robert Shane Burns dismissed the murder charge against our client, Chelsea Becker. This outcome is a major victory in her 19-month legal battle challenging the legitimacy of a murder charge for experiencing a stillbirth.

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, Pregnancy Justice submitted comments to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the government entity that leads and coordinates U.S. drug policy.

On December 24, 2020, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article that included incorrect and dangerously misleading information about a recent California Supreme Court order in Chelsea Becker’s case. The article erroneously reported, “Court refuses to bar woman’s murder prosecution for death of fetus, a loss for Becerra.

People who have abortions and people who give birth are often the same people, just at different points of their lives. So why are abortion services and birth services kept so separated? In a radical act of expansion, CHOICES has become the first non-profit health care provider in the county to offer both birth services and abortion care under one roof.

Call Your Senators and Tell Them to Oppose Barrett's Confirmation

In 2006, President Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Amy Coney Barrett, signed an advertisement announcing a commitment not only to ending abortion but also to defending “the right to life from the moment of fertilization until natural death.