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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
A West Virginia prosecutor is warning women that a miscarriage could lead to criminal charges
Amid a constantly changing reproductive landscape, one West Virginia prosecutor is warning people who have miscarriages in his state that they could get in trouble with the law. Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman says that although he personally wouldn't prosecute someone for a miscarriage, he made the suggestion out of an abundance of caution after hearing from other prosecutors. Truman even suggests people might want to let local law enforcement know if they've have a miscarriage. Several reproductive law experts say people around the country have, indeed, faced charges related to miscarriages — but they still wouldn't recommend reaching out to law enforcement. Truman says the idea first came up during a chat with other West Virginia prosecutors at a conference several years ago, and it's been been an ongoing conversation since. The initial conversation was theoretical, since at the time, women in the US still had the constitutional right to an abortion under Roe v. Wade. But some of the prosecutors believed they could charge a person using state laws related to the disposal of human remains. 'I thought these guys were just chewing on a Dreamsicle,' Truman said. But, he added, West Virginia's legal statutes include definitions that are 'pretty broad-ranging.' The way some prosecutors may interpret the law means people who miscarry could face criminal charges, including felonies, he said. 'It's a different world now, and there's a lot of discretion that prosecutors have, and some of them have agendas where they would like to make you an example,' Truman told CNN. 'What's changed is, Roe isn't there anymore, and so that may embolden prosecutors in some cases,' he said. 'I'm just trying to say, 'be careful.' ' Early pregnancy loss is common, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, It happens in about 10 of 100 known pregnancies, often because the embryo isn't developing properly. And some reproductive law experts say it's probably not a good idea to call the police when it happens. 'It's always a mistake to invite law enforcement into your reproductive life,' said Kim Mutcherson, a professor of law at Rutgers Law School who specializes in reproductive justice. Calling police could prompt an unwanted investigation, she says. 'If they then decide, 'no, it actually wasn't a miscarriage, this was somebody who took pills,' or whatever sort of thing that they want to conjure up, then all of a sudden it goes from 'here's this poor woman who had a miscarriage' to 'here's a person who we're going to start to prosecute,' ' Mutcherson said. 'I understand the idea that caution is better than being caught up in something that you weren't anticipating, but it is difficult for me to imagine any circumstance in which I would think it was safe for someone who miscarried to call the police,' she added. Abortion is illegal in West Virginia, but there are exceptions in the case of a medical emergency or a nonviable pregnancy, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Kulsoom Ijaz, senior policy counsel with Pregnancy Justice, a nonprofit focused on the civil and human rights of pregnant people, said she doesn't believe there is anything in West Virginia law that criminalizes miscarriage. 'I think the law is pretty clear,' she said. 'There's nothing in the law that says someone can be charged with a crime in connection to their pregnancy loss or their conduct during pregnancy, or for how they respond to that pregnancy loss or miscarriage or stillbirth.' The fractured landscape of reproductive rights that came about in the wake of the Dobbs decision, the US Supreme Court ruling that revoked the federal right to an abortion, has increased the risk that a pregnant person can face criminal prosecution for a variety of reasons, not just a miscarriage, according to a report from Ijaz's organization. Between June 2022 – when Dobbs was handed down – and June 2023, there were more than 200 cases in the US in which a pregnant person faced criminal charges for conduct associated with pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth, according to Pregnancy Justice. The number is most likely an undercount, Ijaz said. In West Virginia, there were at least three cases related to pregnancy prosecutions. In one, the state's Supreme Court found that the state could not levy criminal child abuse charges against someone for their prenatal conduct, which included substance use during pregnancy. Even with the strict abortion ban in place, Ijaz said, 'there are still protections for pregnant people.' In states like Alabama that have fetal personhood laws that give fertilized eggs, embryos and a fetus the 'same rights as you and I,' Ijaz said, it's a little different. 'We've seen people get prosecuted and face decades of incarceration for substance use during pregnancy, because that fetus that they're carrying is seen as a child,' she said. Last year in Ohio, a woman who had a miscarriage at home was charged with a felony on the advice of the Warren City Prosecutor's Office, but a grand jury dismissed the case. Ijaz said that she doesn't think there is an appetite for these kind of cases among the public but that no matter where someone lives, inviting the law into their life right after a miscarriage is ill-advised. The legal landscape for reproductive justice 'seems to almost be changing on a daily basis' – and generally not in favorable ways for pregnant people, said Brittany Fonteno, CEO of the National Abortion Federation, a professional association for abortion providers. 'The laws, the rhetoric, the culture in which we are living in within the US has become so incredibly hostile to people who experience pregnancy,' she said. 'I think that the intersection of health care and criminalization is an incredibly dangerous path,' Fonteno added. 'As a country, we should be supporting people and their ability to access the health care that they need, rather than conducting intrusive and traumatic investigations into their reproductive lives.' Fonteno recommends that people who experience pregnancy loss reach out to a qualified medical professional rather than law enforcement. 'While we are living in a very different country than we were pre-Dobbs, I believe still that this is an individual experience and a health care decision,' she said. 'Most providers believe that as well.' Mutcherson also says that the reproductive justice landscape in the US is 'scary' for people who are pregnant, who want to get pregnant or who have bad pregnancy outcomes. If there's any silver lining to the discussion about criminalizing miscarriage, she said, it's that it's good for people to know that such things can happen. 'Women have been criminalized for their pregnancies for decades, frankly, so to the extent that there is a wider and broader conversation about what it means to treat an embryo or a fetus as a person, and the ways in which that diminishes the personhood of somebody who was pregnant, that is in fact a valuable thing, right?' Mutcherson said. 'Maybe this is actually going to bring us to a better space.'
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Black residents are leaving these three NJ cities. What else to know from this new report
Jersey City is the "Bedroom City," Newark is going through a "Jobless Gentrification," and Paterson is the "Migrant Metro." They are labelled as such in a new report that shows how gentrification and international migration have benefited and hurt three of New Jersey's largest and most diverse cities. The 40-page report, released last week by researchers at Rutgers Law School's Center on Law, Inequality & Metropolitan Equity, "The Other Cities: Migration and Gentrification in Jersey City, Newark and Paterson," points out the growth and decline each of these cities has experienced. According to the report by Mussab Ali, Katharine Nelson, and David Troutt, the state's second-largest city by population, Jersey City, with over 290,000 residents, is known as the "Bedroom City" because of its growth tied to accessing jobs in New York City and is a place that "provides strong evidence that gentrification is well underway." The evidence is also in the $88,000 median income of new residents, and units boasting rents of $3,000 and higher, making it one of the most expensive places for renters in the country. Also, 40% of Jersey City residents who work are employed in New York City. Real estate: Zillow will stop showing certain home listings in May under new listing policy Newark, the state's largest city with 305,000 residents, was labeled in the report as existing amid "Jobless Gentrification,' where the prices of new market-rate housing and renovated units by investors have risen while there's little job growth. Data collected by the researchers show that home values between 2015 and 2023 went up 92% from $242,548 to $465,693, while during the same period, median asking rents jumped 32% from $1,567 to $2,066. The city is also experiencing gentrification, like nearby Jersey City, but in a different way, as Troutt pointed out. "Jersey City has a lot more street-level gentrification assets, like restaurants, bars, and cafes. Newark, by contrast, privatizes many of those attractions within the developments themselves. That's why you see buildings that contain their own playrooms, theatres, gyms, and other amenities," Troutt, the center's director, said. Meanwhile, Paterson is referred to in the report as "Migrant Metro," a municipality where the lack of affordability stems from the influx of working-class immigrants vying for few affordable units. The report makes note of Paterson as not only the home of a large and thriving Arab American community but also of sizable Caribbean and South American communities, as well as a "rapidly growing Bangladeshi population." Yet, home values in the city of 156,000 have nearly tripled from $164,259 in 2015 to $489,491 in 2023. A saving grace has been in rentals, with the median gross rent ticking slightly upwards from $1,435 in 2015-2019 to $1,512 in 2020-2024. The report goes on to point out other downsides. The report observes that where each of the three cities had traditionally boasted robust African American populations, they have seen losses in that racial group in recent years. Since 2013, Jersey City has lost 2,936 Black residents, and Paterson has lost 4,540 Black residents, the report said. An exact number of Black residents who have left Newark was not given. The report did say that while 1,810 Black residents settled in the city, due in part to "a large influx of Black Caribbean and West African people," this suggests some African Americans moved out of the city. The report gives the reason for the decline as due to "displacement pressures." The decline comes alongside a growing group that is also not welcome news: the homeless population. The count in Newark was 1,595 in 2013 and 2,451 in 2023, Jersey City went from 920 to 1,168, and Paterson went from 392 to 710. The increase in the homeless population reflects the inability to keep up with rising housing costs and find work that enables them to afford to live. These negative numbers are counterpoints to gains in residents for each city, with Jersey City and Newark experiencing a jump in their population of more than 8% in the past five years and Paterson with 7%. When it comes to foreign-born populations, the gain is greater, with Paterson seeing an increase in its foreign-born population from 32% to 44% from 2013 to 2023, Newark from 27% to 35%, and Jersey City from 39% to 41%. The growth of foreign-born populations in the cities affirms a point made in the report of "a confounding new fact of urban life: working class centers of immigration are no longer the affordable places they once were. People may not come for work but [to be with] other people like them." The report's release comes as Jersey City and Newark's mayors are running for New Jersey governor where they face questions on the campaign trail about housing and affordability. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop did not respond directly to questions from on the increase in the city's homeless population and the loss of Black residents listed in the report or on the report itself. The city's spokesperson, Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione, said in an extensive statement that Fulop implemented "some of the strongest tenant protections in the state, passed inclusionary zoning, and made record investments in affordable housing." Wallace-Scalcione also said that Jersey City has been a "leader in the fight for affordability" by building 275% more housing per capita than New York City and approving nearly 9,000 new affordable and market-rate homes last year. "Jersey City's story isn't just about development; our focus has always been on thoughtful growth and policies that benefit long-time residents and strengthen our diverse communities," Wallace-Scalcione said. The spokesperson for Newark, Susan Garofalo, issued a statement from the city, "The report is useful as an analytical tool for us to compare with our lived reality and internal departmental dashboards. It reveals areas that are easily misperceived and misunderstood by those not immersed in our issues, and our housing, workforce, and economic development initiatives." The city took issue with the report on its homeless population, claiming the homeless numbers for Newark reflect "county numbers that include other urban areas such as the Oranges and Irvington," while touting the city's various efforts to deal with homelessness. The city pointed to ways it is trying to keep longtime residents, such as African American residents: strengthening renter protections, investing in affordable housing, supporting community-based initiatives, and implementing equitable zoning and housing regulations. Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh is quoted in the report as telling the researchers that the city is "prioritizing reducing the number of vacant units in Paterson to incentivize development. The amount went from 1,200 in 2018 to less than 200 currently. Sayegh also said in the report that the city's development strategy "aims to foster a middle class by building mixed-income housing, focusing on major investments around the Great Falls, and positioning Paterson as the food capital of the state." Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Email: kaulessar@ Twitter/X: @ricardokaul This article originally appeared on Black NJ residents leaving Jersey City, Newark, Paterson, report says
Int'l Business Times
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Trump's Tension With Courts Rise as Admin Seemingly Ignore Orders: What Happens Next?
The Trump administration has come into question recently for seemingly ignoring numerous court orders. As experts warn this could lead into a full-blown constitutional crisis, others raise the question: what would happen if he does? The issue first came into the spotlight after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport Venezuelan migrants to an El Salvador prison. The presiding judge of the case, James Boasberg, chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., directed the government to turn the planes carrying migrants back to the U.S. The administration did not do that, claiming it was too late to turn the planes around, though highlighting they did not deliberately defy the judge . Boasberg has since pressed the government for more information, and on Friday, he will hold a hearing to consider the matter further. In a separate case, the federal judge presiding over the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man the government wrongly deported to El Salvador , chastised the administration Tuesday for its inaction amid signs she would also consider whether to hold officials in contempt. But if it is found that the administration deliberately defied the order, what happens next? Courts aren't powerless , and in fact, they could punish the executive branch in an effort to force compliance. Federal courts have broad discretion to determine whether a party is in contempt of court, according to the Brennan Center , a nonpartisan law and policy institute. The process would start with a judge issuing an order to show cause, which would essentially direct the government to explain why they appear to not be complying with an order, Axios reports. In civil contempt proceedings, which is outside of the president's pardon power and seeks to force a party to comply, the court has "really wide discretion" to choose remedies, which could include setting fines, freezing assets and, ultimately ordering an arrest, David Noll, a law professor at Rutgers Law School told Axios . Arrests would typically only occur when other remedies have been tried but failed. "Although civil contempt can involve being jailed until the person complies with the court order, that is enforced by the United States Marshals, who are part of the Department of Justice and thus under the president's control," wrote Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law in a New York Times op-ed. If an improper effort to block the Marshals from conducting their duty occurs, there is a rarely used authority that allows a court to deputize different law enforcement officers to carry out their orders. But he noted, "you have to really sort of go back to the wild west" or the early 20th century "to find cases where private parties or law enforcement officers other than the Marshals were being used to enforce federal court orders." Nevertheless, experts believe that it is unlikely that, if found to be openly defying the orders, any Trump official will face consequences for their actions, at least so long as Trump is president. A recent Vox op-ed highlights Founding Father Alexander Hamilton's views on the judicial branch, a statement that could be highlighted if tensions between the administration and the courts continue. "In a famous essay on the courts, Alexander Hamilton argued that the judiciary 'will always be the least dangerous' of the three branches of the federal government because it 'must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgements,'" the op-ed read. "Ultimately, if Trump or his subordinates are held accountable for their defiance of court orders, it will be because the courts— or maybe Congress — exercise their authority in ways that Trump cannot stop," the article concludes. Originally published on Latin Times
