Pregnancy, Labor and Birth

WHAT WE DO

Pregnancy Justice defends and advocates for people who are pregnant, continue their pregnancies, and give birth.

Pregnancy Justice is the leading organization providing pro bono (free) legal advocacy for people who, except for the fact that they are pregnant, would not have been charged with a crime, threatened with arrest or loss of child custody, or forced to undergo nonconsensual medical interventions, including surgery.

In the U.S. approximately 4 million people each year get pregnant, continue those pregnancies and give birth. As U.S. data on maternal mortality makes clear, women, especially Black women continue their pregnancies despite the serious risks to their own lives and health. Some of the them are being investigated, arrested, threatened with arrest, and/or coerced into or forced to submit to treatment and other interventions against their will.

Some criminal laws focus on punishing people — not for any actual harm they have done — but for things that risk harm. For example, many states make child “endangerment” a crime. This crime is committed when someone puts a child at risk of harm but does not actually cause any injury to the child.

An increasing number of police officers, prosecutors, as well as doctors and nurses believe that both criminal and civil laws designed to protect children may also be used to protect “unborn” children — meaning fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses. As a result, pregnant people who are pregnant and disagree with a doctor’s advice or command to stay in bed, remain in a hospital, or undergo cesarean surgery have been threatened with arrest, actually arrested, held prisoner in hospitals, forced to undergo major surgery, and reported to civil child welfare authorities for “unborn” civil child abuse or neglect.