The war on drugs involves criminal laws that prohibit possession and distribution of certain substances by certain groups of people. It also responds to a public health issues (drug dependency) through the criminal law system. Laws that prohibit common human activities - such as drinking alcohol, using drugs, and having abortions have all failed to stop those activities.

Alicia Beltran, a 28-year-old pregnant woman, sought early prenatal care and confided in health care workers about prior use of painkillers and her efforts to end that use on her own. Instead of commending Ms. Beltran for her progress, her medical practitioners reported her to the Department of Human Services, as a result of which she was arrested on July 18, 2013 by Wisconsin law enforcement officials.

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.

In Pregnancy Justice's study, Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women in the United States, 1973-2005: Implications for Women's Legal Status and Public Health,, Jeanne Flavin and Lynn M. Paltrow documented the fact that an overwhelming and disproportionate number of arrests and detentions were brought against women of color and especially low-income Black women.

Roe v. Wade protects more than abortion. If fertilized eggs and fetuses are recognized as separate people, women lose the right to terminate pregnancy, but also will be open to criminal prosecution, child abuse allegations, and other harsh interventions when they remain pregnant and go to term.

In February 2018, timed to build upon the December 2017 fact-finding mission to the United States by Professor Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Pregnancy Justice co-hosted a discussion of the unique ways in which poverty affects women across the United States.

We want to share a video we made about Tammy Loertscher's experience challenging Wisconsin Act 292. We ask that you share her story with your social media community. We need her voice to be heard.

Under this law, the government can, in the context of secret juvenile court proceedings, take certain pregnant women into custody, appoint a lawyer for her embryo or fetus, and lock the woman up in a drug treatment program, mental hospital or jail based on evidence of pregnancy and current (or even past) use of any amount of alcohol or a controlled substance.

May 31, 2018

This April, Pregnancy Justice presented a webinar entitled “Criminalization/Legal Implications of Substance Use Among Pregnant Women” as a part of the national Healthy Start program’s “Ask the Expert” webinar series.

During the webinar, Pregnancy Justice Senior Staff Attorneys Aarin Williams and Amber Khan and Staff Attorney Indra Lusero described our work advocating for pregnant people charged with crimes or child welfare allegations in relationship to their pregnancies or pregnancy outcomes, and advised community health workers how they can best help their patients/clients.

Who is Dr. J. Marion Sims and what is a statue honoring someone who experimented on enslaved Black women doing in East Harlem, New York?

Controversies over statues memorializing racism (and sexism) are not limited to one region of the United States.