Jailed for Being Pregnant? Women Seeking Abortions Powerless

"Hundreds of women have been arrested, convicted, jailed, detained in mental institutions or forced to endure medical procedures as a result of the "criminalisation of pregnancy" over the last four decades, a new report has found.

In the first study of its kind, to be published on Tuesday, researchers from the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) identified 413 criminal and civil cases across 44 states involving the arrests, detentions and equivalent deprivations of pregnant women's liberty between 1973 and 2005. NAWP said that it is aware of a further 250 cases since 2005. Both figures are likely to be underestimates, it said."*

Law enforcement has overstepped federal law in some local areas, prosecuting and jailing pregnant women seeking abortions. A troubling amount of women have been denied their constitutional rights due to pregnancy- how is this happening, and on what grounds are local officials doing this? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss the situation.

*Read more from Karen McVeigh, The Guardian via Raw Story:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/14/troubling-number-of-women-denied-consti...