Open Letters

A National Call for Birth Justice and Accountability. How many Black, Brown, and Indigenous people have to die giving birth?

In July 2020, Pregnancy Justice joined numerous allies including Ancient Song Doula Services and Black Mammas Matter in signing an open letter that served as a national call for birth justice and accountability. Pregnancy Justice knows that just as police misuse their authority against Black, Brown, and Indigenous people on the streets, they also do so in hospitals and delivery rooms and with the assistance of health care professionals.

Purdue Pharma Debtors’ Emergency Fund Expenditures – Proposed Guidelines

Having already written a statement challenging false and stigmatizing medical misinformation advanced in the context of the nationwide litigation seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies liable for the over- prescription of opioids in the U.S., Pregnancy Justice followed up with a letter regarding distribution of funds from Perdue’s bankruptcy settlement related to claims about its role in the national opioid addiction and overdose crisis.

Reproductive Justice and Anti Violence Statement Challenging False Claims Linking Laws Criminalizing Abortion and Related Feticide Laws with Protection of Women from Violence

Some reports following New York’s passage of the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) asserted that the RHA somehow increases the risk of gender violence. Pregnancy Justice and Professor Julie Goldscheid (CUNY Law School) authored a statement challenging those claims, and other false claims linking laws criminalizing abortion and related feticide laws with protection of women from violence.

Pregnancy Justice Open Letters in the case of Ms. Roberta J. Baker in St. Francois County, Missouri

In February 2018, Ms Roberta Baker, a mother in St. Francois County, Missouri who lost her baby around 24 hours after giving birth, was charged with felony child abuse and neglect. Ms. Baker did not receive health care during her pregnancy and birth because she did not have a health care provider she could access or trust.

Violence Against Women in the Medical Setting: An Examination of the U.S. Foster System

On May 31, 2019, Pregnancy Justice, along with Movement for Family Power and 20 non-governmental organizations, activists, public defense offices, academics, and others who work every day to advance the human rights of pregnant and parenting people submitted a set of recommendations to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women regarding the United States child protection and foster system.

Pregnancy Justice Open Letter to Oklahoma DA opposing targeted prosecutions of pregnant people (Sept. 2018)

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.