Legal Advocacy

NAPW engages in legal advocacy that challenges efforts to criminalize pregnancy and motherhood, establish fetal rights under the law, and expand the war on drugs to women's wombs. NAPW provides litigation support in both civil and criminal cases across the country, particularly for public defenders and other local lawyers faced with cases that raise legal and medical issues with which they may be unfamiliar. This litigation support encompasses finding experts to testify, locating counsel, providing model briefs and research, and organizing opposition to punitive approaches through amicus (friend of the court) briefs and open letters from leading medical, public health, and child welfare organizations.