This event was held at at the Hawai‘i State Capitol by community activists and legislators to highlight the dangers of Hawaii’s MidwiferyRestriction Law (Act 32, HRS 457-J) - an unconstitutional law that criminalizes practitioners of midwifery, as well as postpartum healers who are unlicensed. This law threatens Native Hawaiians and communities of color, which are already incarcerated at disproportionately high rates in Hawaii’s prisons.
Midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, counselors, childbirth educators, and cultural practitioners, who have engaged in indigenous birthing practices for decades (derived from ancestors who have handed down their wisdom over centuries), have had to halt their services out of fear of prosecution, at a time when we need more – not less – access to maternal healthcare, particularly in our most rural areas.
Watch ACLU-HI Executive Director, Salmah Y. Rizvi, weigh in on this law at a Press Conference here: https://vimeo.com/1038772498?share=copy
