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.
The statement explains how, in alliance with medical care providers, the child protection and foster system mistreats and inflicts violence on women seeking reproductive health care services in the United States, and how it targets poor women and women of color who are pregnant or have recently given birth for child maltreatment investigations, intensive state surveillance and control, and forced family separation, all of which are forms of state-sanctioned violence. The signatories recommend that the United States amend or repeal any laws that permit punitive responses to people seeking reproductive health care and instead support a confidential, robust, compassionate, non-coercive, evidence-based health care response for patients' needs.
Read the recommendations here: