Challenging VBAC Bans

We’ve covered the issue of women being denied the option to have a vaginal birth after a cesarean (VBAC) several times in the past few months. Childbirth activists and advocacy groups are using to different strategies to challenge VBAC bans, and in an effort to gather more information, a lawyer with the Northwest Women’s Law Center in Seattle asked us to post the following:

“I’m a lawyer with the Northwest Women’s Law Center in Seattle. I’m investigating possible legal responses to bans on vaginal birth after cesarean at hospitals in the northwest states Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon. If you are currently pregnant and want to have a VBAC, but are facing a hospital policy that would require you to have a c-section regardless of whether you want it and regardless of whether it is actually medically necessary, and you are willing to consider working with a lawyer on this, we’d like to talk with you. Please respond to vbacbanhelp@ican-online.org.”

Interested in learning more? Birth activist Barbara Stratton’s excellent guide, 50 Ways to Protest a VBAC Denial, provides plenty of tips for challenging such bans.