In 2007, NAPW had a major growth spurt. We went from an organization of 2-3 full time people to a core staff of 7-8 plus numerous consultants and interns. We outgrew our space and our systems. All of us have, for nearly a year, been crowded into barely 1,200 square feet with only 2 phone lines and limited network capacity.

I am thrilled to announce that we moved to new space that will allow us to build appropriate infrastructure including fully networked systems. Our new offices are located at 15 West 36th Street Suite 901, New York, New York 10018. Mail from the old office will be forwarded to the new one (in case you were worried).

There are many things about the office and location that are auspicious. . .

Continue reading "We Moved!" »

Posted by wen at 12:13 PM | Permalink

Today, we were thrilled to learn that after 8 long years, the South Carolina Supreme Court has finally reversed the 20-Year Homicide Conviction of Regina McKnight. The unanimous decision recognizes that research linking cocaine to stillbirths is based on "outdated" and inaccurate medical information. NAPW has been working on behalf of Ms. McKnight for nearly 10 years.

Specifically the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Regina McKnight did not have a fair trial when she was convicted in 2001 for homicide by child abuse. Through this conviction she became the first woman in South Carolina to be convicted of homicide by child abuse as a result of suffering an unintentional stillbirth.

McKnight was arrested in 1999, several months after she experienced a stillbirth at Conway Hospital. McKnight’s conviction was based on the jury’s acceptance of the scientifically unsupported claim that her cocaine use caused the stillbirth. McKnight had no prior arrest history and even prosecutors agreed that she had no intention of harming the fetus or losing the pregnancy. Nevertheless, upon conviction she was given a twenty-year sentence, suspended to twelve years in prison with no chance for parole. She was projected to be released in 2010.

The medical community has strongly opposed McKnight’s prosecution and conviction. From the beginning, leading South Carolina and national medical, public health, and child welfare organizations and experts have opposed the prosecution and conviction. These organizations—represented by us-- the National Advocates for Pregnant Women and the Drug Policy Alliance, with South Carolina counsel Susan Dunn included the South Carolina Medical Association, the South Carolina Nurses Association, the South Carolina Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, and the South Carolina Coalition for Healthy Families argued in an amicus (friend of the court) brief argued that women do not lose their rights to a fair trial upon becoming pregnant and challenged the state’s evidence that cocaine use or anything else that McKnight did or did not do caused the stillbirth.

Continue reading "Regina McKnight -- Victory at Long Last" »

Posted by wen at 03:14 PM | Permalink

On Saturday March 15, 2008 the New York Times published a story, In Alabama, a Crackdown on Pregnant Drug Users. We were pleased that it did not use such stigmatizing and scientifically baseless terms as "crack" and " meth" baby. We were disappointed though that the story did not quote any experts in the field. Rather the story said: "Some doctors and advocacy groups maintain that the effects of drugs on pregnant women and their fetuses are not fully known. . ." This phrasing suggests a level of doubt that simply does not exist. It implies that arresting pregnant women who become pregnant and continue to term in spite of a drug problem might somehow be justified. In fact, every leading medical and public health group to take a position on the issue opposes prosecution of pregnant women and new mothers as counterproductive to both maternal and fetal health. Moreover, as the information we provided to the New York Times makes clear, there is no room for doubt. Virtually every leading researcher in the field of prenatal exposure to drugs has concluded that while use of these drugs should not be viewed as benign, the actual and extensive peer reviewed and published research that has been done has been unable to identify a recognizable "condition, syndrome or disorder" resulting from exposure to these drugs that would justify singling out their use as a basis for the prosecutions of pregnant women.

There are many reasons to oppose the prosecution of pregnant women and new mothers. These prosecutions, if upheld would create legal precedent for the finding that women, upon becoming pregnant lose their civil and human rights. If a pregnant woman can be viewed as a child abuser before she ever gives birth, or as a murderer because she can not guarantee a healthy birth outcome, she ceases to exist as a full human being and full rights bearing citizen. Here is just one small example. Very often in these cases it is assumed that women should be able to stop their drug use when they become pregnant. But because pregnant women are no less human than other people, they too become addicted to drugs . This means that the desire and intent to stop is very often not enough to overcome the addiction. Pregnant women no less than people like Rush Limbaugh deserve compassion and treatment as they struggle with addiction not the presumption that they can simply stop. If pregnant women fail to overcome fully an addiction in the short term of pregnancy, their continued use is taken by some as evidence of a desire to harm their future child -- rather than as evidence that they are human beings and struggling like other people with the physiological and psychological ramifications of addiction.

Other reasons to oppose the prosecution of pregnant women include the fact that incarcerating pregnant women in prisons and jails that do not provide adequate health care and that permit shackling of women who are pregnant and in labor will not help anyone. Moreover, arguing about prosecutions of pregnant women keeps us from talking about the lack of appropriate family drug treatment for pregnant women and parents, lack of universal health care in general, and lack of commitment to our country's mothers and children.

Oh, and by the way, NAPW is working with local attorneys and advocacy organizations to challenge these prosecutions.

Want to do something to help stop these cases? Send a letter/email about how these prosecutions are bad for both maternal and fetal health to: The Alabama Prosecutor: Covington County DA Greg Gambrill at gambrilg@alaweb.com; and to Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Attorney General Troy King, and Donald E. Williamson, MD at the Alabama Department of Health.

Posted by wen at 08:34 PM | Permalink

Salon.com asked me to write 150-250 words on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Joining other activists including Pamela Merritt (aka Shark-Fu), Shelby Knox, Cristina Page, Jennifer Baumgardner, and Gloria Feldt, among others. Some people feel that after 35 years, reproductive justice activists should not have to spend their time defending the right to choose abortion. But Roe was just a beginning. The fact that America still does not have any national policy of paid maternity leave is just one of many indications of how far we still have to go. My few words in Salon.com give an indication of just how far that is.

Continue reading "On the 35th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade" »

Posted by wen at 04:57 PM | Permalink

Dr. Stone is an OB/GYN in Oklahoma City and state chair for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Click here to read her op-ed, "Is meth murder charge useful?", from the December 19th edition of The Daily Oklahoman, the state's largest paper.

Posted by wen at 09:37 AM | Permalink

On Wednesday, November 14th, Oklahoma City hosted a major medical panel called Women, Pregnancy and Drug Use: Medical Facts, Practical Responses and the Well-Being of Children and Families. To listen to segments of the forum, click here to play the mp3 from the KGOU site.

For a flier with full event information and panelists' bios, please click here.

Recently, in State v. Hernandez, the state prosecuted an Oklahoma City woman for murder after suffering a stillbirth and testing positive for methamphetamine — despite a lack of medical evidence connecting the two events and the disapproval of local and national medical and public health associations and individuals. Hear renowned local and national experts in the fields of medicine and social work separate myth from fact regarding drug use and pregnancy, discuss the implications of the case for the health and well-being of Oklahoma’s women and babies, and map out strategies for effective and appropriate responses to addiction and pregnancy.

The keynote was Dr. Barry Lester, the Director of the Brown University Center for Study of Children at Risk, while the other panelists included four other Oklahoma-based medical/public health experts, including the state representative to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a woman who has been personally affected by substance abuse, the drug war, prison, and her experiences with the criminal justice system.

To see Dr. Lester's entire PowerPoint presentation, click here and go to the bottom link, labeled "Oklahoma City Forum."

Event sponsors included:

• Drew Edmondson, Oklahoma State Attorney General
• Oklahoma County Medical Society
• Oklahoma Department of Human Services
• Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
• Oklahoma Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition
• Oklahoma Nurses Association
• Oklahoma State Medical Association
• National Association of Social Workers, OK

Posted by wen at 05:23 PM | Permalink

This Sunday, September 16th, NAPW Executive Director Lynn M. Paltrow will be one of the panelists for a Birth Today in New York discussion following a sold-out performance of Birth. This play, based on over one hundred interviews Karen Brody conducted with mothers across America who gave birth between 2000-2004, and directed by Heidi Marshall, tells the true stories of 8 women, painting a portrait of how low-risk, educated women are giving birth in America today. All three performances of Birth are currently sold out, but any announcement re: additional performances will appear here.

Other panelists (and NAPW allies!) will include:

• Elan McAllister, President & Co-Founder, Choices in Childbirth

• Debra Pascali-Bonaro, B. Ed., CD (DONA), LCCE, Pres. of MotherLove, Inc.

• Patricia Burkhardt, CNM, DrPH, NYU College of Nursing Midwifery
Program Coordinator

• Christie Craigie-Carter, International Cesarean Awareness Network, Inc.

• George M. Mussalli, MD, FACOG, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan

• Mary Barr, Executive Director, Conextions Inc.

Posted by wen at 01:08 PM | Permalink

Miscarriage of Justice

The federal "partial-birth" abortion ban has grave implications for all pregnant women, not only those seeking to end pregnancies.

By Lynn M. Paltrow
 American Prospect Web Exclusive: 04.19.07

[Last week] 

the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the first federal law that bans an abortion procedure for all women and all doctors in all states. By holding that Congress's interest in "preserving and promoting fetal life" trumps both scientific evidence and the health of pregnant women, the newly reconfigured Supreme Court overturned the opinions of three lower federal courts and its own precedent. While Justice Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion, claims that the "act expresses respect for the dignity of human life," the decision expressly devalues the women who give that life.

Continue reading "NAPW in American Prospect on Sp. Ct. blow to pregnant women" »

Posted by Lynn at 03:44 PM | Permalink

To answer this and related questions National Advocates for Pregnant Women and more than 60 organizational and individual co-sponsors are holding the National Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women, January 18- Sunday, January 21, 2007 at the Hilton Airport Atlanta, Atlanta, GA.

There are over twenty plenaries and workshops at the Summit addressing the question of how we do or do not value pregnant women and mothers. Among the workshops are:

How Can We Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women When Pregnant Women, Mothers, and Breastfeeding Women Find So Little Support From Their Workplaces and Communities?

Barriers to Care and Control: From Bans on Vaginal Births After C-sections (VBAC Bans) to Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP Laws,) Do Women Have a Say in Pregnancy and Childbirth?

Medical Interventions That Can Help and Hurt: How Do We Ensure Women's Informed Consent, and Women's Ability to Protect Their Reproductive Health and Lives?

New co-sponsors of this extraordinary event include the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the Committee on Women Population and the Environment, Generation Five, the Idaho Women's Network, the Midwives Alliance of North America, Planned Parenthood of Georgia, Backline, the Third Wave Foundation, and the Council on Anthropology & Reproduction

The Summit is already receiving media coverage and praise. On December 14, Paris Hatcher of Georgians for Choice, Susan Hodges of Citizens for Midwifery and Lynn Paltrow(me) of NAPW appeared on WRFG, (89.3FM) Radio Free Georgia. We gathered by phone to appear on the Womanspeak program hosted by the incomparable C. Wiatta Freeman. We had a whole hour to talk about the Summit and its goals including bringing together two disparate groups that in fact have many shared values and concerns: those who identify themselves primarily as pro-choice, and those who advocate for maternity/birth with dignity (midwives, doulas, alternative birth practitioners, and other health care providers).

Commenting on the Summit and the Preliminary Program, we received high praise from writer, researcher and author Robbie Davis Floyd:

The program is indeed truly amazing. . .

I hope this will be the start of ongoing dialogue, action, and future such events--I feel that we are creating a community here much wider than the ones we normally participate in.

We hope you will join us at the Summit. If you have not registered yet you can write to Summit@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org to find out how you can still participate in this groundbreaking event.

Posted by Lynn at 12:54 PM | Permalink

Demonstrating an extraordinary interest in finding common ground and addressing the shared concerns of pregnant and birthing women -- more than 50 organizations have signed on as formal co-sponsors of this groundbreaking event. We don't think we need to say more than to share this list as evidence of unprecedented collaboration and support:

Our Bodies Ourselves,
International Center for Traditional Childbearing,
Citizens For Midwifery, Inc.,
Mothers United For Midwifery,
Realbirth Education Center,
SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective,
Planned Parenthood Federation of America,
Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center,

Continue reading "Over 50 Co-Sponsors for the National Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women, Thursday, January 18– Sunday, January 21, 2007 at the Hilton Airport Atlanta, Atlanta, GA." »

Posted by Lynn at 09:26 AM | Permalink

This week, NAPW's commentary, coauthored by NAPW summer law intern Julie Ehrlich, Jailing Pregnant Women Raises Health Risks, is featured in Women's E-news. In recent months, pregnant women have been arrested and jailed in South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and New Hampshire, among other states, based on the claim that pregnant women can be considered child abusers even before they have given birth. This commentary challenges one of the main justifications for such arrests -- the claim that imprisoning pregnant women and new mothers will somehow promote public health. The commentary describes the unhealthy and dangerous prison conditions that all too many pregnant women face in this country.

One response to the commentary was from a lawyer in New Mexico. This lawyer had not heard of the arrests and was doubtful that such cases in fact exist. Unfortunately, they do. The good news though is that when these arrests are vigorously challenged winning is possible!

Continue reading "Arrests Continue, But So Do The Challenges" »

Posted by Lynn at 04:13 PM | Permalink

Through a variety of mechanisms, women who want to have a vaginal birth after a previous cesarean section ("VBAC") are finding that this option is foreclosed, and their ability to exercise their right to informed medical decision-making limited or denied altogether. Some women have effectively or literally been forced to have unnecessary surgery. In one case police officers actually entered the home of a woman in labor, took her into custody, forced her to return to a hospital, and made her undergo a cesarean section against her will and without medical indication. As a USA Today story on VBACs reported, other women have been forced to travel long distances from their family and doctor in order to attempt vaginal birth at a facility that supports them. And still others have been left with home birth, often without support from a health care professional, as their only way of avoiding a c-section that they in fact did not want or need.

Continue reading "A Pro-Choice Victory, Congratulations Barbara Stratton!" »

Posted by Lynn at 08:01 AM | Permalink

Yesterday, President Bush, exercising his first veto, rejected the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act that many in Congress and the medical community believe will lead to many potentially life-saving medical breakthroughs. According to the New York Times, "Mr. Bush said the bill violated his principles on the sanctity of human life." We understand that there are wide differences of opinion on such issues as abortion, the death penalty, war and even health care. Nevertheless we at NAPW wondered whether these pricinples apply to any form of life other than embryonic and fetal life in light of the following:

Continue reading "What are President Bush's Principles on the Sanctity of Human Life?" »

Posted by Lynn at 11:56 AM | Permalink

just summarizing a few of the new and very disturbing assaults on pregnant women and families turned into a commentary published by TomPaine.com and picked up by Alternet, entitled Blaming Pregnant Women. Thank you to editor Alex Walker, at TomPainecom for making this possible: In a society that values children, it's striking how frequently our public policy falls short of our rhetoric. Too often, the notion of collective responsibility for the nation's children translates into collective demonization of pregnant women. Collective responsibility for our children should mean support for policies that help pregnant women get the care they need to have healthy babies. Instead, states and localities are increasingly blaming individual women, exaggerating the harms from individual behaviors.

Continue reading "What Started Out As a Little Blog . . ." »

Posted by Lynn at 09:38 AM | Permalink

NAPW is tracking every case involving the arrests of pregnant women nationwide, and according to news reports, two new arrests have been made in Alabama of women who gave birth to infants who allegedly tested positive for drugs. Telisha Patterson and Haley Mays were recently arrested and charged with torture or willful abuse of a child and child endangerment for giving birth in spite of a drug problem. Alabama has no law permitting such arrests and a court opinion from 1995 says that this very law may not be used as a mechanism for policing pregnancy. Yet here they are, two more arrests.

Part of the reason of why we keep seeing these new cases is how they are covered by the media. For example, one news report from WSB-TV quotes a cashier as a reliable authority that Ms. Patterson was taking drugs. That same story also relies on a sheriff as its medical authority, quoting him as saying that the baby “has the symptoms, feelings, as an addict, even though its small.” If you were sick, would you rely on a police officer or service station cashier for medical diagnosis and advice? It would be far more appropriate to rely on any of the more than ninety scientific experts who have submitted an open letter calling on the media to refrain from using the term “addicted baby” because medical evidence does not support the term and that babies, by definition, cannot be "addicted" to anything. According to the experts, addiction refers to compulsive behavior that continues in spite of adverse consequences. These same experts also state that although research on the impact of methamphetamine exposure is still in the early stages, over 20 years of research on the related drug, cocaine, has not identified any recognizable condition, syndrome or disorder resulting from prenatal exposure to the drug warranting the terms “meth baby” or “crack baby.”

Continue reading "New Arrests of Pregnant Women" »

Posted by Lynn at 03:24 PM | Permalink

In mid June, authorities found the body of a 14 year old girl, who was nine months pregnant. Police suspect that her abusive boyfriend helped to commit this crime. Unfortunatley Ms. Brooks is just one of far too many girls and women killed as a result of male violence.

On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.

Rather than address the pervasive violence against women in Kansas, across the United States and throughout the world, anti-choice activists leapt on this tragic case as an opportunity to advance fetal rights.

Julie Burkhart, is Executive Director of ProKanDo a Kansas based reproductive rights political action committee. Julie began receiving press calls almost immediately. The press inquiries were, however, not about Chelsea Brooks, but rather were all about the rights of the fetus, the fact that it was "viable," and why Kansas did not have an Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Initial press coverage carried such headlines s as: "Girl's death spurs call for new fetal law" and "Family seeks to criminalize killing fetuses."

Continue reading "Thank you Julie Burkhart" »

Posted by Lynn at 11:52 AM | Permalink

In our current political world we tend to think of the war on drugs and the war on abortion as very distinct battlegrounds. While it is becoming increasingly clear that the war on abortion is also a war on contraception and sex itself (See Christina Page, How the Pro-choice Movement Saved America) it should be clear that both the war on drugs and the war on abortion are powerful tools for undermining women's health and evidence-based medicine overall.

Feminist writers, thinkers and leaders from Katha Pollitt in the Nation (Virginity or Death, May 30, 2005 issue) to bloggers across the ether-sphere are decrying Bush administration officials in the FDA who are opposing a new vaccine that eradicates the human pampilloma virus (HPV).

Continue reading "Death to Women. Long Live HIV and HPV." »

Posted by Lynn at 06:38 PM | Permalink

It is a refreshing change to see how legislators across the Atlantic are so forthcoming about their intentions, as compared to our own sly devils. In the United Kingdom, Duncan McNeil, a Scottish Parliament Minister, wants to add oral contraceptives into methadone in order to punish opiate addicted women who are taking steps to end drug dependency and lead healthier lives. He offers this Faustian deal: if you want methadone, which is a medically approved and prescribed TREATMENT for opiate addiction, then you must give up your right to procreate. Whether you have to read between the lines or just read between the quotes, advocates on both sides of the Atlantic are saying the same thing: If you are poor, a person of color, and use certain drugs, you are a bad person and the more of these characteristics you have, the more undeserving you are to be a mom.

Continue reading "Spiking Methadone With Oral Contraceptives, the Latest in the War on Reproductive Rights" »

Posted by Lynn at 03:06 PM | Permalink

Yesterday’s New York Times carried a lengthy obituary for a key reproductive rights thinker and leader, Lawrence Lader. Through his early journalism and then activism, he was one of the first people in the 1960’s to openly expose and challenge US laws criminalizing abortion. It is safe to say that his research, writing, and help in founding the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) were key factors in igniting an American movement for reproductive rights. I did not know Larry well, but I admired him greatly. I particularly appreciated him because he was one of the few people to document the truly radical, grassroots activism of other women and men of the early reproductive rights movement. Through him, I learned about such people as Patricia Maginnes, the founder of the nation’s first abortion rights organization, and a woman who actively sought to be arrested as a way to challenge California laws restricting the distribution of information about abortion, contraception, and venereal disease.

Larry stayed active all of his long life and I even had the privilege of once helping to represent him and another organization that he founded, ARM (Abortion Rights Mobilization) in their efforts to make RU486 available to women in the United States.

In addition to Larry, America’s reproductive rights movement lost another key activist this year – though one far less recognized.

Continue reading "In Memoriam—Lawrence Lader & Gloria C. Knighton" »

Posted by Lynn at 10:06 AM | Permalink

While some national groups are fundraising and announcing plans to go into South Dakota, local grass roots and state based activists are already hard at work, organizing, collecting signatures, building new alliances, and defining the core issues for themselves. I learned this and much more on my recent trip to South Dakota.

As you probably know by now, in March, South Dakota passed a law banning virtually all abortions. Local activists responded by starting a referendum drive. If they collect 16,738 signatures from registered voters, the statute will have to be submitted to the people of the state for a direct vote on November 6, 2006.

I learned that for the local activists collecting signatures, the work they are doing has much more to do with preserving democratic and family values than it does with preserving the right to choose to have an abortion. They understand that the abortion issue is being used to distract attention from core economic and family issues that cross race, religious, and party lines– including the need for a living wage and the fact that so many South Dakota families lack health care coverage.

Continue reading "My Trip to South Dakota By Lynn Paltrow" »

Posted by Lynn at 08:23 PM | Permalink

The World Health Organization considers acceptable levels for cesarean rates as not less than 5% and not more than 15% of all deliveries. Yet approximately 28% of all US births are by cesarean delivery, accounting for approximately one million cesareans a year. Given these facts, it should not come as a surprise that organizations concerned about unnecessary and potentially risky c-sections, including NAPW, will be closely watching this week when the National Institutes of Health state-of-the-science holds its conference on ‘cesarean delivery by maternal request.’ http://www.consensus.nih.gov

The American College of Nurse Midwives. Childbirth Connection, the American Association of Birth Centers, Citizens for Midwifery, the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, the International Cesarean Awareness Network, and Lamaze International are among the organizations watching closely. These groups support the “REDUCE” campaign . . .

Continue reading "C-Sections, Forced, Coerced, or On Demand?" »

Posted by Lynn at 11:28 AM | Permalink

Although it is still a work in progress, we are proud to launch a new more beautiful and user-friendly NAPW site. Thanks to John Emerson, Wen-Hua Yang, Wyndi Anderson, and Deb Harper for all of their help.

While we celebrate our new site, we also launch our blog with this question: Have Alaska legislators lost their minds?

Continue reading "Welcome to NAPW's new web site and blog!" »

Posted by Lynn at 12:00 PM | Permalink