Pregnancy Justice's Work

On January 24, 2022, Pregnancy Justice submitted written testimony in opposition to South Carolina’s proposed abortion ban, S.988. The so-called “Equal Protection for Unborn Babies Act” is a trigger ban, meaning it would go into effect immediately if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, in part or whole.

Remarks by Samantha Lee, Staff Attorney, as part of Attorney General Rob Bonta's press conference on 1/6/2022.

Thank you, Attorney General Bonta. My name is Samantha Lee and I am a staff attorney at Pregnancy Justice.

As an organization dedicated to advancing the civil and human rights of all people capable of pregnancy, Pregnancy Justice is honored to stand with Attorney General Bonta in support of this legal alert instructing district attorneys, police chiefs, and county sheriffs in California not to misuse the state’s murder statute to criminalize people for their pregnancy outcomes.

December, 2021

In April 2021, Arizona enacted Senate Bill 1457, which broadens the entire Arizona criminal and civil code such that every mention of “person” or “child” includes “an unborn child at every stage of development.” This so-called “Personhood Provision” provides the grounds for state actors in Arizona including prosecutors and child welfare authorities to treat the fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses inside of pregnant women as whole persons with independent rights.

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.

In partnership with The Bronx Defenders, Movement for Family Power, NYCLU, Brooklyn Defender Services, Elephant Circle, and Ancient Song Doula Services, Pregnancy Justice held two teach-ins covering the history of the family regulation system and its relationship to the war on drugs, CAPTA/CARA, and the NYC Commission on Human Rights' investigation into three hospital systems' drug testing policies and practices.

How Fetal Protection Laws Fail to Protect (And Even Hurt) Pregnant People

When laws are passed to "protect fetuses," what does that mean for pregnant people?

Join Pregnancy Justice for a panel discussion featuring leaders in social work, law, medicine, and birth justice about the direct impact of fetal protection laws on pregnant people.

Experts Address the Rights of Pregnant Patients to Informed Consent, Bodily Integrity, and Medical Decision Making

What happens when a pregnant patient exercises their right to medical decision making? Is there any justification to override a pregnant patient’s consent? Join Pregnancy Justice for a discussion featuring leaders in bioethics, medicine, law and birth justice about pregnant patients' rights to informed consent, bodily integrity, and medical decision making and the trauma that forced medical interventions can inflict on pregnant people.

Pregnancy Justice Executive Director Lynn M Paltrow and Consulting Policy Counsel Deborah Small present at the Meharry Medical College: Henry W. Foster OBGYN Interest Group Reproductive Justice Conference.

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“In Defense of Roe” is a film documenting the groundbreaking 1989 conference that brought together leaders of the growing women of color reproductive rights movement with grassroots and progressive white women.

The conference was called in part as a response to the fact that mainstream groups who were organizing a march on Washington had not included women of color leaders in the planning or organizing of the march.

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.