The prosecution of Jennifer Whalen for purchasing her daughter abortion-inducing medication is reminiscent of the way that hospitals, Child Protective Services, and law enforcement have historically responded to drug use during pregnancy.
Two women are suing a sperm bank, citing unexpected emotional and financial distress, after they were given the wrong sperm and their daughter was born Black. But society owes all women of Black and brown children reparations for sustaining a reality in which their parenthood is inextricably linked to dealing with extraneous emotional distress.
A letter sent by 48 reproductive justice, drug policy reform, women's rights, and civil liberties organizations called on Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice to renounce a policy of enhancing a criminal sentence for crimes committed while pregnant.
Amid reports of possible corruption and complaints of long waits for benefits have come calls for an investigation into the Medicaid privatization program championed by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R).
A measure on the Colorado ballot has been compared to “fetal homicide” laws in dozens of states, but the measure is more far-reaching, and could subject pregnant women to prosecution for everything from choosing abortion to driving without wearing a seat belt.
"The fetus basically gets two lawyers to try and stop the minor from getting an abortion in a way that no other state’s law comes close to doing," said Andrew Beck, one of the ACLU attorneys challenging the Alabama law on behalf of a Montgomery abortion clinic, arguing it is unconstitutional.
A West Texas abortion provider could face disciplinary consequences for following the mistaken advice of the Texas Department of State Health Services, which wrongly informed Hilltop Women's Reproductive Clinic over the weekend that it was exempt from the state's omnibus anti-abortion law.
Earlier this year, a team of Swedish doctors announced the successful transplant of uteruses into nine women who hoped to become pregnant. Now, the first baby to be carried in one such womb has been born.
