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National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW)

National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) is dedicated to protecting the rights and human dignity of all women, particularly pregnant and parenting women and those who are most vulnerable including low income women, women of color, and drug-using women. Our work encompasses litigation, litigation support and legal advocacy; local and national organizing; public policy development, public education and outreach.

Are you a defense attorney? Do you represent women being punished (arrested/losing custody of their children) based on something they did (used drugs/had a home birth) or did not do (prenatal care/drug treatment/refusal of C-section) while continuing a pregnancy to term? If so, please let us know.

NAPW may be able to:

Provide you with model pleadings,
Review your motions and briefs,
Help find experts
File supporting amicus briefs in order to educate the court about why punishment of pregnant women undermines both maternal and fetal health

Some of the law and medical background on this issue:

With the exception of South Carolina, no state makes it a crime for a woman with a drug addiction to become pregnant and to continue to term.
Depriving women of their right to: informed consent; liberty; relationship with children as a result of pregnancy is unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 532 U.S. 67 (2001) has explicitly held that health providers who collect evidence of drug use from pregnant and recently delivered patients, without a warrant or specific consent, and turn that information over to the police, do so in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Numerous medical groups, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Nurses Association, oppose the prosecution and punishment of pregnant women.
Scientific and medical studies fail to substantiate the alleged causal link between such drugs as cocaine and methamphetamine and inevitable or unique harm to a fetus or child.
Local Pediatricians, Obstetricians and even Medical Examiners are generally not qualified to testify as experts regarding the effects of prenatal exposure to illegal drugs.

National Advocates for Pregnant Women can be reached at 212-255-9252, info@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org