Pregnancy Justice, Inc.

Pregnancy Justice asserts that criminal justice and child welfare should never be involved in “pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes,” maintaining that these systems are designed to “terrorize” parents of color and the poor. ¹

Background

Lynn Paltrow started Pregnancy Justice in 1998. ² It seeks to strike down legal structures that “limit access to abortion; dehumanize pregnant people; invent separate legal right for fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses; expand the war on drugs to criminalize pregnancy [and] needlessly separate families based on stigma and medical misinformation.” ^{3 1}

It became an independent nonprofit in 2001 and changed its name from National Advocates for Pregnant Women to Pregnancy Justice in 2022. Paltrow stepped down in 2023 and was succeeded by Lourdes A. Rivera, a former Ford Foundation program officer. ¹

Pregnancy Justice endorses the reproductive justice framework spearheaded by SisterSong, an abortion advocacy group. ^{4 1} SisterSong views pregnancy through the lens of fighting “reproductive oppression” defined as “the control and exploitation of women, girls, and individuals through our bodies, sexuality, labor, and reproduction.” It advocates organizing “excluded groups” to challenge “structural power inequalities” represented by healthcare and legal systems. ⁵

Activities

As legal counsel, Pregnancy Justice represents pregnant women charged with crimes related to their pregnancy, threatened by state action, or challenging the constitutionality of a law. The majority of its clients are women of color, poor, and substance-abusing. Services are pro bono. ⁶

The organization represented 60 women in 2023, contributed to four amicus briefs, and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit jointly with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) against Alabama jail officials. They were accused of endangering imprisoned pregnant women after a woman gave birth unassisted in a shower stall and lost consciousness due to blood loss while the officials allegedly failed to act. ^{7 8}

During 2023, Pregnancy Justice provided information and direct assistance to 110 people and trained 3,000 attorneys, students, healthcare and social workers, policymakers, and researchers. ⁷

The previous year it published eight reports covering fetal personhood as well as laws regulating parenting and drug use. ⁷ It maintains a database of criminal cases for all United States pregnancy outcomes ¹ and provides testimony regarding proposed policies and legislation. It testified at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on fetal personhood. ⁹

Pregnancy Justice was one of six principal signers of a 2023 letter to the United Nations alleging that ending Roe v. Wade placed the United States in violation of treaty obligations under international human rights law. The Roe v. Wade decision had guaranteed a federal constitutional right to abortion. Among examples cited in the letter were violations of the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. ^{10 11}

Funding

Pregnancy Justice’s primary source of revenue is foundation grants. In 2022 it received $2,450,00 in grants and $616,677 in contributions. ³ The Ford Foundation contributed $400,000 and the Foundation for a Just Society awarded $200,000. ^{12 13} The organization received $225,000 from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and 34 grants from other donors. ¹⁴

Individual gifts are processed through ActBlue Charities. ¹⁵

Leadership

Lourdes A. Rivera leads Pregnancy Justice. A career abortion activist, Rivera was a program officer at Ford Foundation and vice president at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She co-founded the Groundswell Fund and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice. ¹⁶