Pregnancy Justice
Typesnonprofit organization
Legal status501(c)(3) organization
HeadquartersNew York City
CountryUnited States
Coordinates40°45′18″N 73°59′30″W / 40.75511°N 73.9918°W / 40.75511; -73.9918
Revenue2,593,376 United States dollar (2019)
Websitewww.pregnancyjusticeus.org 

Pregnancy Justice is a 501(c)(3) organization "dedicated to defending the rights of pregnant people against criminalization and other rights violations because of pregnancy and all pregnancy outcomes."[1] It was founded in 2001 by Lynn Paltrow[2] as National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), supporting pro-choice.[3] They changed their name to "Pregnancy Justice" November 15, 2022.[4] Their work has included documenting "over 1,700 cases of pregnancy-related arrests, detentions and equivalent deprivations of physical liberty from 1973 to 2020."[5]

Precursor

Roughly 14 years before founding NAPW, Paltrow defended Pamela Rae Stewart, a woman from El Cajon, 17 miles (27 km) east of downtown San Diego, California, who had been jailed for six days on charges that she contributed to her infant son's death by ignoring a doctor's orders during pregnancy. On February 26, 1987, a San Diego Municipal Court judge "ruled that the San Diego County district attorney’s office erred in using a law concerning child support to prosecute Stewart for failing to provide proper medical care for her unborn son."[6] "The boy was born brain dead Nov. 23, 1985, and died Jan. 1, 1986. A coroner's report lists maternal drug abuse as a contributing factor in the death."[7] Paltrow was part of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project at that time.[6]

Recognition

The work of NAPW, now Pregnancy Justice, has been cited as background in discussing prosecutions of multiple women for miscarriages, stillbirths, or other problems with pregnancy. For example, in January 2020 Brittney Poolaw miscarried her four-month old fetus in Oklahoma. In October 2021 she was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison, because she had been using illicit drugs when pregnant. A BBC News report on that sentence noted that the National Advocates of Pregnant Women (NAPW) had recorded 1,600 such cases between 1973 and 2020, "with about 1,200 occurring in the last 15 years alone."[8]

Almost a year later Chelsea Becker began talking publicly about her experience with 16 months in jail in King County, California, before charges were dismissed "for lack of evidence", after a pregnancy ended in a stillbirth in 2019. During that pregnancy she had been homeless and addicted to methamphetamine, for which she was charged with "murdering her unborn son at 38 weeks of pregnancy." An ABC News discussion of Ms. Becker's case noted that by that time, September 28, 2021, NAPW had documented over 1,700 such cases since 1973.[9]

When and where is a fetus a person?

A December 2022 report by Pregnancy Justice provides a detailed review (62 pages with 416 footnotes) carefully documenting the status of fetal personhood and its implications in the US.[10] For example, Missouri law declares that life begins at conception. That raise multiple questions, including whether the failure to implant a fertilized egg can be prosecuted as murder. GOP efforts to classify a fertilized ovum as a person elsewhere have met with limited success because of the popularity of in vitro fertilization (IVF). However, Pregnancy Justice urges their supporters to be vigilant about this issue.[10]

When a six month old fetus was killed with its mother in 2021, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) said that fetus was an employee, because the mother was on duty as a MODOT employee at the time, and Missouri law shields employers from wrongful death lawsuits when an employee dies on the job.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Pregnancy Justice, Wikidata Q30288051, accessed 2023-06-01.
  2. ↑ Lynn M. Paltrow, Wikidata Q118959099 Lynn Paltrow, Wikidata Q118959105
  3. ↑ Pregnancy Justice, Wikidata Q30288051, "About Us", accessed 2023-06-01.
  4. ↑ National Advocates for Pregnant Women Changes Name to Pregnancy Justice, Pregnancy Justice, 15 November 2022, Wikidata Q118958626
  5. ↑ Michelle Onello (17 May 2023). "A Pioneer in the Fight for Pregnancy Justice: The Ms. Q&A With Lynn Paltrow". Ms. ISSN 0047-8318. Wikidata Q118958719.
  6. 1 2 Jenifer Warren (27 February 1987). "Woman Is Acquitted in Test of Obligation to an Unborn Child". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Wikidata Q118959241.
  7. ↑ "A judge dismissed Thursday the criminal prosecution of a..." United Press International. 26 February 1987. Wikidata Q118959343.
  8. ↑ Robin Levinson-King (12 November 2021). "US women are being jailed for having miscarriages". BBC News. Wikidata Q118959434.
  9. ↑ Devin Dwyer; Patty See (28 September 2022). "Prosecuting pregnancy loss: Why advocates fear a post-Roe surge of charges". ABC News. Wikidata Q118959444.
  10. 1 2 Katherine Fleming; Emma Roth (December 2022), When Fetuses Gain Personhood: Understanding the Impact on IVF, Contraception, Medical Treatment, Criminal Law, Child Support, and Beyond (PDF), Pregnancy Justice, Wikidata Q118978039
  11. ↑ Bram Sable-Smith (3 May 2023). "Can a fetus be an employee? States are testing the boundaries of personhood after Dobbs". CBS News. Wikidata Q118978161.
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