Women have been prosecuted in relationship to pregnancy in cases charged as homicide, feticide, criminal child endangerment or abuse, abuse of a corpse, criminal abortion, and other crimes. When women are punished in relationship to pregnancy – whether for creating risks of harm or for the outcome of the pregnancy (miscarriage, stillbirth, infant death, or termination through abortion) – the primary targets for arrest are low-income women and women who have become pregnant and used a controlled substance.
This training focuses on the issues that arise when a woman is prosecuted on allegations that she did something intended to terminate her pregnancy. Because such cases build on and are similar to more common prosecutions of pregnant women who use controlled substances, those issues are also addressed. Using a scenario drawn from actual cases, we present a legal, ethical and strategic discussion of the many issues criminal defenders and their clients will face and the arguments that can be made to get such charges dismissed.
Presented by: Daniel Arshack, criminal defense attorney, New York, NY; Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director, National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW); and Nancy Rosenbloom, Director of Legal Advocacy, NAPW
This webinar was supported by Grant No. 2013-MU-BX-K014 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
