NAPW and ACLU File Amicus Brief in Lovill v. Texas
Incarceration of Pregnant Woman Draws Local and National Criticism
Medical, Public Health, Child Welfare Advocacy groups and Experts Ask Court to Free Amber Lovill
January 18, 2008
AUSTIN, TX - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and National Advocates for Pregnant Women today filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief on behalf of 29 medical, public health, and advocacy groups, and individual medical experts, in support of an appeal to free Amber Lovill. Ms. Lovill, who tested positive for methamphetamines while on probation, was incarcerated because she was pregnant at the time.
"No law in Texas, including our community supervision or probation laws, empowers the state to imprison women because they are pregnant," said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director of the ACLU of Texas. “The government’s actions in this case not only violated Ms. Lovill's rights to due process, privacy, and equality they also increased the health risks to Ms. Lovill and her future child."
While on probation, Ms. Lovill, who was working to recover from a methamphetamine dependency, experienced a relapse. Although probationers who relapse are often given another chance and the ability to continue treatment, the state successfully argued that Ms. Lovill should be incarcerated because she was pregnant. As a result, Ms. Lovill was imprisoned at the Nueces County Jail, where she received no drug treatment, inadequate prenatal care, was subject to shackling during her hospital stay and during transport to and from the hospital and was separated from her child only days after giving birth.
"There is no credible scientific evidence linking methamphetamine to adverse pregnancy outcomes" said Barry Lester, Ph.D. Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Pediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the Director of the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk at Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. “Pregnant women with drug addictions need treatment – not jail."
Today’s brief was filed on behalf of 29 leading organizational and individual public health professionals and advocates including the American Public Health Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the Child Welfare Organizing Project, the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative, and the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health.
Every leading public health group to address the issue, – including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Nurses Association – oppose punishing women who continue to term in spite of a drug dependency problem as dangerous to both maternal and fetal health.
The ACLU of Texas, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, and the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project filed the amicus brief in Texas’ Thirteenth Court of Appeals in the consolidated cases Ex parte Lovill, No. 13-07-668-CR and Lovill v. Texas, No. 13-07-529-CR.
Click here for the amicus brief and here for a full list of amici.
For more information on the ACLU of Texas, go to www.aclutx.org. For more information on National Advocates for Pregnant Women, go to www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org. For more information on the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, go to www.aclu.org/reproductiverights.
Contacts: Lisa Graybill, 512-971-2927
Legal Director, ACLU of TX
Tiloma Jayasinghe, 212-255-9252
Staff Attorney, National Advocates for Pregnant Women
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