This definitely seems worthy of passing along! Please do forward this information for the benefit of birthing mothers everywhere.
I am pleased to present the first-ever NAPW law student writing contests to expand the birthing rights conversation. Attached, you will find a more detailed description of the contests and how you or your organization can become a co-sponsor, and a file containing both writing prompts.
The first contest asks for a critical analysis of the absence of birthing rights issues from gender discrimination and feminist jurisprudence textbooks and curricula (in fact, none of the top three casebooks used in law school courses dedicated to gender and the law address the issue of childbirth or midwifery).
The second contest asks students to develop legal theories that can be used to challenge policies banning pregnant women from having a vaginal birth after a prior caesarean section (VBAC). This topic will encourage students to address a growing problem that has received very little attention from the feminist legal community both in academia and within the leading women’s rights legal advocacy organizations.
Please feel free to pass the writing prompts on to any law students (or law schools/journals) that you may know. There will be cash prizes for the top three entries in each contest ($1000, $500, and $250; we hope to adjust these figures higher, pending funding!). Submission guidelines and other information will be available at www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org. Further questions can be directed to writingcontest@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org. If you have questions about co-sponsorship, you can call me at 718-316-8922.
I hope that you will be as excited as I am, and will forward this email far and wide. I also hope that you will become a co-sponsor of this effort, which promises to yield some truly cutting-edge legal scholarship in an area that has been somewhat overlooked by the feminist legal academy.
Yours Sincerely,
Farah Diaz-Tello
Legal Intern
National Advocates for Pregnant Women
