Tag: Pregnancy Discrimination

Making ‘Impregnators’ Pay Their Fair Share

Long before a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion revealed that by summer Roe v. Wade will likely be overturned, only pregnant people bore the burden of pregnancy—not just physically, but also financially. “Impregnators” have always had the choice to walk away. Sure, they could be on the hook for child support after birth—but what if they could be held responsible for their actions before, from the moment of conception, just as the pregnant person is?

That question led two Pennsylvania state representatives to begin drafting a law to hold impregnators accountable.

Unborn Who? Pregnancy Discrimination at COVID Vaccine Sites Signals How Expanded Conscience Rights Prioritize Control, Not Life

Women throughout the country reported showing up to their vaccine appointments only to be subjected to off-cuff, discriminatory treatment by professionals providing the vaccine, even as evidence mounted that the COVID-19 vaccine was safe and recommended for pregnant women, while COVID-19 was proving particularly dangerous in pregnancy, increasing the rate of severe complications including stillbirth. Some providers singled pregnant women out, requiring doctor’s notes; others refused to vaccinate them altogether.

As individual rights to deny medical care on religious or moral grounds expand, no one is safe from discrimination in medical care—not even the “unborn.” We should all understand our right to be free from gender-based discrimination in medical settings.

Overturning Roe Creates More Barriers for Asylum-Seekers and Immigrants

Hostile state or federal laws that ban or restrict abortion and criminalize pregnancy outcomes could have yet another devastating impact: threatening eligibility for legal immigration status and undermining efforts to create more equitable and humane immigration laws.

The politics of immigration and the politics of choice will continue to collide as extreme lawmakers cynically trade the reproductive health of immigrant and non-citizen women for political gain.

The Feminist Legislator Behind Title IX

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One of the visionaries behind Title IX—the federal legislation passed in 1972 that mandates gender equality in education—was a fierce and fearless congresswoman from Hawaii, Patsy Takemoto Mink. As Congress’s first woman of color and a 1972 presidential aspirant, Mink served 24 years in Congress, from 1965–1977 and then again from 1990–2002. Mink broke traditional gender boundaries, championed peace, the environment, equality and social justice, and never wavered as an advocate and ally for social change.

marijuana pregnancy

Arizona Mother Accused of Child Neglect for Medical Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy Wins Appeal

Last week, the Arizona Court of Appeals reversed a decision from the state’s Department of Child Safety (DCS) to place Lindsay R.—an Arizona woman whom the state branded a child abuser because she used medical marijuana while she was pregnant—on its child abuse and neglect registry for 25 years.

The criminalization of pregnant women using marijuana is part of a broader trend, according to National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which has documented more than 1,000 arrests for drug use during pregnancy.

“The Equal Rights Amendment Has Been Ratified. It Is the Law”: U.S. House Resolution Declares ERA 28th Amendment

In an opinion issued on Wednesday, Jan. 26, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) helped clear the way for the Equal Rights Amendment. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), responded to the newly issued OLC memo by saying that the ERA has already been ratified and should be recognized as the 28th Amendment.

The Texas Ban and the Migration Injustice

The Texas Ban and the Migration Injustice

“Abortion migration” is when pregnant people travel long distances and cross internal and national borders to access abortion care. While the news out of Texas is extraordinarily alarming, both Texas women and pregnant people across the globe have long been traveling to places like Albuquerque to legally terminate pregnancies. Various forms of state and state-sanctioned power combine to coerce our movement in ways that threaten our dignity and equal standing.

Why I Refuse to Feel Hopeless About the Texas Abortion Case

Why I Refuse to Feel Hopeless About the Texas Abortion Case

I refuse to feel hopeless about the fact that Texas has, for now, successfully banned abortion in that state. Already, the Department of Justice has sued Texas over its restrictive new abortion law, saying the state legislature enacted the statute “in open defiance of the Constitution.”

I do not predict another civil war, but I do know there will be a reckoning. Sometimes a loss opens the door to something better in the future. Before then, though, there will be enormous suffering. But, as we have seen before, no prohibition and no amount of pain or fear will ever stop a movement for fundamental human rights.