Each year in the United States, about 1 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 inhibits prevention, affects the experience of stillbirth for birthing parents, and shapes broader notions of unborn life, Lens argues for a series of pragmatic, data-driven changes to the legal landscape that could enjoy broad popular support and strengthen reproductive justice and reproductive rights.

About the Author
Jill Wieber Lens is Dorothy M. Willie Professor in Excellence at the University of Iowa College of Law. She gave birth to her stillborn son, Caleb Marcus Lens, in 2017.


Book Information
ISBN 9780520393578
Author Jill Wieber Lens
Format Hardback
Page Count 280
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press