When Pregnancy Is Used to Deny Patients Their Civil and Human Rights: Experts Address the Rights of Pregnant Patients to Informed Consent, Bodily Integrity, and Medical Decision Making | Reading Material
*See links for PDFs of the below reading material
Reading Materials
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Statement of Policy: Opposition to Criminalization of Individuals During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Ethics Committee Opinion: Refusal of Medically Recommended Treatment During Pregnancy (Ethics Committee Opinion #664)
Birth Rights: A Resource for Everyday People to Defend Human Rights During Labor and Birth, available in Spanish and English.
Dray Amicus Briefs
● Rinat Dray v. Staten Island University Hospital et. al., Supreme Court Appellate Division, 2nd Department. Filed by BRBA with Birth Place Lab, November 2020.
● This brief was filed in the early stages of Ms. Dray's case. Rinat Dray v. Staten Island UniversityHospital, et. al., Supreme Court of the State of New York County of Kings. Filed December 2014.
These organizations also filed amicus briefs in support of Rinat Dray's 2020 appeal: Pregnancy Justice, VBAC Facts and Evidence Based Birth, New York Civil Liberties Union, and If/When/How with several other reproductive justice and human rights organizations.
Black Women’s Blueprint 2019 Report: SEXUAL ABUSE TO MATERNAL MORTALITY PIPELINE (SAMM)
Pregnancy Justice: The Right To Refuse: Key Legal and Ethical Principles (Fact Sheet)
Notable Links
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Article: #WhiteCoatsForBlackLives — Addressing Physicians’ Complicity in Criminalizing Communities
Guttmacher Institute Article: Counseling and Waiting Periods for Abortion
Notable Cases
In re A.C., 573 A.2d 1235 (D.C. App. 1990) (en banc)
In re Baby Boy Doe, 632 N.E.2d 326 (Ill. App. 1994)
In re Fetus Brown, 689 N.E.2d 397 (Ill. App. 1997)
Stallman v. Youngquist, 531 N.E.2d 355 (Sp. Ct.1988)
Speakers
Dr. Jamila Perritt became President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health in 2020. She is a past Fellow of the Leadership Training Academy. Dr. Perritt received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and completed her medical degree at Howard University College of Medicine. In addition to a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Pennsylvania Hospital, she received her fellowship training in Family Planning and Master of Public Health at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Perritt is board-certified and a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society of Family Planning. Dr. Perritt uses her unique position as a physician advocate to bring attention to systemic inequities affecting access and health outcomes. An expert in family planning and abortion care, Dr. Perritt has testified before Congress and spoken extensively with the media including NPR, Vox, and Ms. Magazine.
Indra Lusero, JD, is founder of Elephant Circle and the Birth Rights Bar Association. Indra's family has been in the Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado area for generations. As a Queer, Genderqueer, Latinx parent rooted in the Rocky Mountain West, Indra is attuned to the importance of people on the margins and our role in leading the dismantling of oppressive systems to build a more equitable world. Indra helped pass legislation in Colorado to eliminate the shackling of incarcerated women during pregnancy and birth, to improve midwifery and birth center regulations, and to create more humane policies for families impacted by substance use. Indra also spearheaded the creation of "Birth Rights: A resource for everyday people to defend human rights during labor and birth."
Sevonna Brown is the Co-Executive Director at Black Women’s Blueprint where she oversees advocacy campaigns. Through Ancient Song Doula Services and the Doula Project she is a birthworker and reproductive justice advocate, dedicating her work to the survival strategies that Black women build from rituals, sacred truths and the ways they honor the intergenerational narratives of their reproductive herstories. As a survivor she seeks to bridge the connections between reproductive justice and anti-sexual violence advocacy through her cultural work, human rights lens and womanist frameworks. Her work has been published in Ebony, TIME Magazine, ForHarriet, and Rewire News. She was also recognized as a Ms. Foundation Public Voices Fellow for her writing through the Op/Ed Project. Most recently Sevonna received the ELLA Fellowship through the Sadie Nash Leadership Program where she brings reproductive justice to young women of color through grassroots organizing.
Dr. Mary Faith Marshall is Director of the Center for Health Humanities and Ethics and Director of the Program in Biomedical Ethics in the University of Virginia School of Medicine. With her colleagues Lois Shepherd and Julia Taylor, she co-founded its program Studies in Reproductive Ethics and Justice. She is Professor of Public Health Sciences in the School of Medicine, and Professor in the Schools of Nursing and Law (University Faculty). She co-chairs the UVA Health System Ethics Committee and directs its Ethics Consult Service. Her expertise includes reproductive, clinical and research ethics. Dr. Marshall received her BA, BSN and PhD from the University of Virginia, where she was the Paddock Graduate Fellow in Biomedical Ethics. She was a critical care nurse at UVA for eleven years. Her research interests include moral distress, reproductive ethics, policy approaches to perinatal substance abuse, clinical ethics, human subjects protections and research ethics.
Lynn M. Paltrow, JD, founded Pregnancy Justice in 2001. Ms. Paltrow is a graduate of Cornell University and New York University School of Law. She has worked on numerous cases challenging restrictions on the right to choose abortion as well cases opposing the prosecution and punishment of pregnant women seeking to continue their pregnancies to term. She is a frequent guest lecturer and writer for popular press, law reviews, and peer-reviewed journals. She is a Gemini and mother of twins.