Pregnancy Rights

We oppose attempts to criminalize the behavior of pregnant women, including the troubling trend of prosecuting women for drug use during pregnancy, which discourages women from seeking prenatal care and results in less healthy mothers and babies.

Highlights

Legal Briefs & Testimony | NWLC Testimony re: Pregnancy and Caregiver Discrimination to the EEOC

March 8, 2012

This testimony outlines the barriers that pregnant and caregiving women continue to face in the workplace, demonstrating that this discrimination functions to exclude women from many high-wage and high-demand jobs that can be critical to achieving economic security.  It concludes by making recommendations to address these barriers and advance the rights of working women.  The supplemental testimony responds to questions posed by Commissioners at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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Blog Post | “Similar in Their Ability or Inability to Work” or: How Not to Discriminate Against Pregnant Employees

February 17, 2012

This week, the EEOC held a public meeting on unlawful discrimination against pregnant workers and workers with caregiving responsibilities at which experts, including the National Women’s Law Center’s own Vice President and General Counsel Emily Martin, presented compelling testimony setting out the widespread and often blatant ways in which employers continue to unlawfully discriminate in the workplace. Members of the Commission expressed dismay, if not complete surprise, that nearly 35 years after the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) was passed in 1978, discrimination on the basis of pregnancy persists, in the words of EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien, “unnecessarily depriving women of the means to support their families.”

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Fact Sheet | If You Really Care about Criminal Justice, You Should Care about Reproductive Justice!

September 11, 2012

Working towards a more progressive criminal justice system is an important part of furthering the cause of reproductive justice. A criminal justice system that makes communities safer, protects personal liberty and limits abuses of power by governmental authorities will also further the cause of reproductive justice. Those who support a progressive criminal justice system will identify several common areas of advocacy with the Reproductive Justice movement. These include: opposing the criminalization of behaviors that are closely tied to unmet social service needs, especially mental health and substance abuse services; rejecting mass incarceration and the use of the criminal justice system to address problems better addressed through adequate social services; ensuring procedural safeguards, discouraging selective prosecution and protecting the constitutional rights of the accused; and advocating for fair, appropriate and humane sentences for those convicted of crimes.

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More Resources

Fact Sheet | Mothers Behind Bars: States are Failing

October 21, 2010

There are now more women behind bars than at any other point in U.S. history. This rampant incarceration has a devastating impact on families. Most of these women, unseen and largely forgotten, are mothers. Read more...

Reports & Toolkits | Mothers Behind Bars: A state-by-state report card and analysis of federal policies on conditions of confinement for pregnant and parenting women and the effect on their children

October 21, 2010

NWLC and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights released the Mothers Behind Bars report, which explores the egregious practice of shackling women during childbirth and other important issues affecting pregnant and parenting women—the vast majority of whom are non-violent, first-time offenders. In the report, each state is graded on whether it has adequate policies—or any policies at all—on prenatal care, shackling, and family-based drug treatment as an alternative to incarceration.

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Webinars & Presentations | If You Really Care about Intimate Partner Violence, You Should Care about Reproductive Justice

October 06, 2010

A webinar with Jill Morisson (senior counsel, NWLC)

Watch the full webinar

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Webinars & Presentations | If You Really Care about Intimate Partner Violence, You Should Care about Reproductive Justice, Powerpoint

October 06, 2010

The powerpoint presenation for the If You Really Care about Intimate Partner Violence, You Should Care about Reproductive Justice webinar with Jill Morrison (senior counsel, NWLC).

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| Jill Morrison on Laws that Punish Pregnant Women

July 09, 2010

Guest blogger du jour: Jill Morrison on laws that punish pregnant women

Originally posted on Feministing.com, 1/29/2007

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