Michele Goodwin hopes her book “Policing the Womb” will spark outrage

Goodwin is host of Ms. magazine’s new podcast “On the Issues,” which premiered on June 30. Goodwin is a frequent contributor to Ms. magazine and also serves on the executive committee of the ACLU National.

My 16th #WomentoFollow Profile

By Rose Horowitz

“Women are seen as property,” says law professor Michele Goodwin, who hopes her book, “Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood,” which was published March 12, will spark outrage. #WomentoFollow (16th ed.)

Michele Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine. She is also Founding Director of its Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy.

“Women do not suspend their constitutional rights because they are pregnant. You don’t lose the right to vote because you become pregnant.” said Michele Goodwin in a phone interview from her office in California. Increasingly, states are using laws to punish women for their pregnancies, she says.

She hopes telling the stories of incarcerated women, many of them black & stigmatized for alcohol & drug use during pregnancy, will raise awareness of their plight. In this Op-ed, Goodwin points to how pregnancy has become a “political land mind.”