Stillbirth and the Law

Each year in the United States, about one in 170 births is a stillbirth, a rate that has remained stagnant for most of this century even as other high-income countries have dramatically reduced their already lower rates. Jill Wieber Lens, the nation’s foremost expert on stillbirth and the law, blends personal experience and legal analysis to bring us an original, essential guide to this all-too-often unrecognized public health crisis. By exposing how the law shapes stillbirth, inhibits prevention, and fails those most affected, Lens argues for a series of pragmatic, data-driven changes to the legal landscape that enjoy broad popular support and strengthen reproductive justice and reproductive rights.