Center for Reproductive Rights

Nancy Northup. Nancy Northup is the President of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global human rights organization that uses constitutional and international law to secure women's reproductive freedom. The Center has brought groundbreaking cases before national courts, U.N. committees, and regional human rights bodies, and has built the legal capacity of women's rights advocates in over 45 countries. Ms. Northup joined… See full bio.

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Story: This is Shawanna Nelson’s story, a pregnant prisoner, who the Center worked with on a trial: Shawanna Nelson was serving time for writing bad checks in an Arkansas prison when she went into labor. Even though she was not a flight risk, she was forced to give birth immobilized, with her legs shackled to a hospital bed. Under established principles of international human rights law, shackling prisoners during childbirth is tantamount to torture. Nevertheless, the practice remains common across the U.S. In 2008, the Center submitted a friend-of-the-court brief asking the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling that Nelson’s treatment was lawful. In their brief, they used their expertise in international human rights and comparative law to argue that the practice of shackling prisoners during childbirth violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The court granted a rehearing, which took place in September 2009. The federal appeals court ruled in favor of Shawanna Nelson, and said that constitutional protections against shackling pregnant women during labor had been clearly established by decisions of the Supreme Court and the lower courts. This is the first time a circuit court has made such a determination. "This is a historic decision by a U.S. Court of Appeals that affirms the dignity of all women and mothers in America," said Elizabeth Alexander, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project. "Correctional officials across the country are now on notice that they can no longer engage in this widespread practice." (Source: http://reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/CRR_2008_ANNUALREPORT.pdf, http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/reproductive_rights/incarcerated-women/)

Evidence of Impact Summary:

Experts praise the Center for Reproductive Rights for the broad contributions to the field of reproductive rights and reproductive justice. They cite contributions to major public policy debates on the state and national level to preserve reproductive rights of women.
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Organization Strengths Summary:

Multiple experts praise the Center for Reproductive Rights' lawyers’ expertise. Beyond staff, the organizations leadership was roundly lauded by respondents. Other experts note competencies in other elements of the center's operations.
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Areas for Improvement Summary:

While experts supported the organization's general contributions, they noted a variety of sub topics on which they would want more advocacy. Expanding into international-focused work was cited repeatedly. Elements like marketing were also called out as areas which could use some recalibration going forward.
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Nancy Northup is the President of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global human rights organization that uses constitutional and international law to secure women's reproductive freedom. The Center has brought groundbreaking cases before national courts, U.N. committees, and regional human rights bodies, and has built the legal capacity of women's rights advocates in over 45 countries. Ms. Northup joined the Center in 2003 with a rich mix of experience as a constitutional litigator, federal prosecutor, and women’s rights advocate, and a reputation for intelligence, passion, and creativity. "I look forward to a time when a woman's right to control her reproductive life is secured as a fundamental human right, which cannot be denied in the name of religion, culture, or politics," Ms. Northup declared at the time. Since then, Ms. Northup has pursued that vision at the Center with bold, new strategies. Under her leadership, the Center has aggressively expanded its international program, including the launch of an international litigation campaign that has included the first abortion case decided by the U.N. Human Rights Committee and the first case to frame preventable maternal deaths as a human rights violation. Building on its established reputation as first-rate litigators, the Center has also taken the human rights framework into its work in the U.S. It is now documenting U.S. rights violations through fact-finding reports and holding the U.S. accountable before U.N. bodies that monitor compliance with international treaty obligations. In 2008, Ms. Northup led the Center to establish the Law School Initiative to promote legal scholarship and teaching on reproductive health and human rights, an emerging body of transnational law not yet widely taught in U.S. law schools. This ground-breaking effort will shape the thinking of the next generation of lawyers, judges, and policymakers through fellowships for recent law school graduates, a visiting scholars' program, curriculum development, conferences, and publications. Before coming to the Center, Ms. Northup was the founding director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. From 1989 to 1996, she served as a prosecutor and Deputy Chief of Appeals in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Ms. Northup graduated from Brown University and Columbia Law School, where she was a Kent Scholar and Managing Editor of the Columbia Law Review. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alvin B. Rubin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. Ms. Northup holds adjunct appointments at NYU Law School and Columbia Law School where she has taught courses in constitutional and human rights law. A frequent public speaker, Ms. Northup is quoted widely in the national press and has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, FOX News, PBS, MSNBC and NPR. Ms. Northup was born in Kokomo, Indiana and grew up in New York, Texas, and California. She is a lifelong Unitarian-Universalist, who has taught Sunday school and is currently President of the Board of Trustees of All Souls Church. She lives in New York City with her teenage daughter and son.

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