Contact Northwell Health and ask them to resolve Rinat Dray’s case and to take steps to ensure pregnant patients are never again forced to undergo medical procedures without consent.

Background:

Rinat Dray was pregnant with her third child in 2011, and after two cesarean surgeries, she was committed to finding a provider who would be open to the possibility of, and respect her desire for, a Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC). She chose Northwell Health’s Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH). Despite advertising itself as a VBAC-friendly hospital, Ms. Dray’s birth experience at SIUH was even worse than her previous ones.

Last week, Pregnancy Justice filed an amicus brief (“friend of the court”) in support of Rinat Dray in her ongoing fight for justice following unconsented and forced cesarean surgery at Northwell Health’s Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH).

Since 1914, New York State Courts have recognized that “Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body.

Northwell Health's Staten Island University Hospital internal policy ("Managing Maternal Refusal") gives doctors the authority to take control of pregnant patients and force them to have medical procedures without their consent. This policy violates medical ethics and New York's Patient Bill of Rights.

Some New Yorkers think that attacks on reproductive rights and health are confined to far-away places such as Alabama and Tennessee. But right here in New York City, a hospital is arguing and courts are so far accepting the idea that there is a point in pregnancy when patients lose their rights to bodily integrity and medical decision-making.

Panel discussion about the rights of pregnant employees and patients.

Join legal and reproductive health experts to learn about the employment rights of pregnant folks and their decision-making rights regarding their health care and birth plan.

Panelists include:

Chanel Porchia-Albert, CD, CPD, CLC, CHHC, Founder and Executive Director of Ancient Song Doula Services
Allegra Fishel, JD, Founder and Executive Director, Gender Equality Law Center
Indra Lusero, JD, Staff Attorney at Pregnancy Justice
Co-sponsored by the NYU Law Reproductive Justice Clinic

Bios

Allegra Fishel, JD

Allegra L. Fishel is the Founder and Executive Director of the Gender Equality Law Center.

Dear Friends and Allies,

As many of you know, on June 26, a grand jury in Alabama indicted Marshae Jones for the crime of manslaughter because she experienced a pregnancy loss that she allegedly caused by being unable to protect herself from being shot in the stomach while 5 months pregnant.

Today thousands of New Yorkers and others in the U.S. and from around the world are demanding that Northwell Health eliminate policies and practices that authorize forced or coerced medical interventions on pregnant patients in their facilities. Through a petition organized by Pregnancy Justice and delivered today to Northwell’s CEO and Board of Trustees, thousands of people join in calling on Northwell to ensure that no pregnant patient is again denied her constitutional and statutory rights to medical decision-making and bodily integrity as Rinat Dray was at Northwell's Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH).

Eight years after being forced to have cesarean surgery which injured her bladder, Rinat Dray has sued but has not received justice.

December 21, 2018
NY: Rinat Dray v. Staten Island University Hospital et al. (Supreme Court Appellate Division 2d Dep't)

On April 4, 2018, a mid-level New York appeals court ruled against Rinat Dray, reminding us of the enormous challenges women face when they seek redress for obstetric violence through the court system.

In this case Ms. Dray had gone to Staten Island University Hospital to deliver her third child.

On Monday, December 4th four justices of the Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court heard arguments in the Dray case. Rinat Dray is a mother who is suing Staten Island University Hospital and doctors there because, pursuant to a secret (not disclosed to patients) hospital policy, they forced her to have cesarean surgery even though she clearly refused.