Challenging the family policing system is intricately connected to reproductive justice. The right to parent is included in the very definition of RJ, and depriving pregnant and parenting people and their children of that right is another form of state violence. We see this first hand because it shows up again and again in the cases of our clients. 

Join us for an overview of the family policing system, the work to counter its harm, and a walkthrough of a brand new resource we hope will be useful to lawyers, medical professionals, and advocates alike. 

During the webinar, you’ll learn about:

  • If/When/How’s technical assistance:
    • For local attorneys and support to clients being criminally prosecuted who also have attendant family policing cases.
    • For medical providers about mandated reporting of substance-exposed newborns in their state through the Doing Right at Birth project. 
  • An important new resource on prenatal substance exposure to combat overreporting and help prevent families from ever entering the family policing system.
  • Funding and additional practical support for family policing cases (e.g., temporary housing, inpatient treatment), connecting people with family defense attorneys, and preventing the harms of family policing by helping people prepare for giving birth in anticipation of avoiding child removal;
  • Trainings for attorneys on how to address abuse and neglect allegations 
  • The expansion of the Repro Legal Helpline to explicitly include birth justice, which includes challenging the threats of family policing involvement based on coercing/threatening people to consent to unwanted medical intervention 

→ Register