{"id":4219,"date":"2025-12-22T16:09:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-awp-vermont.pantheonsite.io\/?post_type=press_release&#038;p=4219"},"modified":"2025-12-22T21:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:58:06","slug":"court-rules-lawsuit-can-advance-against-dcf-service-providers-for-rights-violations-of-pregnant-vermonter","status":"publish","type":"press_release","link":"https:\/\/www.acluvt.org\/press-releases\/court-rules-lawsuit-can-advance-against-dcf-service-providers-for-rights-violations-of-pregnant-vermonter\/","title":{"rendered":"Court\u00a0rules\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0can advance\u00a0against DCF, service providers\u00a0for rights violations\u00a0of pregnant\u00a0Vermonter\u00a0"},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"class_list":["post-4219","press_release","type-press_release","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"subheading":"Claims against all three defendants will move forward in case of unlawful surveillance and rights violations of expectant parent \u201cA.V.\u201d ","date_and_time":"2025-12-22 11:10:00","featured_image":null,"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Montpelier, VT \u2013 A Vermont judge ruled on the defendants\u2019 motions to dismiss in<i> A.V. v. Vermont Dept. for Children and Families, Copley Hospital, and Lund<\/i>, allowing claims to move forward against all three defendants.\r\n\r\nThe case stems from an inappropriate DCF \u201cassessment\u201d of expectant parent A.V. in 2022. Based on unsubstantiated claims about her mental health and without ever speaking to her, the state obtained access to her confidential medical records, lied to a court to obtain custody of A.V.\u2019s fetus, and attempted to force her to undergo an involuntary c-section. Immediately after A.V. had given birth\u2014and before she could even hold her newborn baby\u2014the state took custody of her child and fought for seven months to sever A.V.\u2019s parental rights, until a judge finally reunited the family.\r\n\r\n<b>Caitlyn Garcia, Staff Attorney, Pregnancy Justice:<\/b> \u201cWe should all be empowered to make our own choices when it comes to our bodies, our pregnancies, and our futures. Vermont\u2019s Department for Children and Families denied our client her basic rights to privacy and bodily autonomy when it lied to a court to secure custody of her fetus based on untrue and unsubstantiated claims her mental health\u2014and, when it engaged its secret surveillance network to uncover deeply sensitive information about her and her pregnancy. No one should endure this kind of intrusion into their lives or bodies, and we look forward to continuing to argue for the vindication of our client\u2019s rights as this case moves forward.\u201d\r\n\r\nNotably, this ruling marks the first time a Vermont judge has considered Article 22, Vermont\u2019s Reproductive Liberty Amendment, which was approved by an overwhelming majority of voters in 2022. Although he ruled that the plaintiff lacked standing to challenge the state\u2019s \u201chigh risk pregnancy calendar,\u201d Judge Battles found that this constitutional provision is \u201cself-executing\u201d\u2014meaning that people can bring independent lawsuits to enforce it if they believe the government has violated their reproductive rights.\r\n\r\n<b>Monica Allard, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Vermont: <\/b>\u201cWith this ruling, DCF and all direct service providers in the state should consider themselves on notice against future privacy rights violations. Providers must not disclose people\u2019s confidential information to DCF, even if the agency asks for it, if they have no valid basis for making a mandated report. Doing so absolutely undermines the basic rights and dignity of Vermonters like our client, whose highly personal information was shared without her knowledge or consent as a part of DCF\u2019s secret surveillance network\u2014all so that it could conduct a so-called \u2018assessment\u2019 of her capacity to parent without ever speaking to her.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe judge also rejected the state\u2019s efforts to assert \u201csovereign immunity\u201d to evade accountability, as well as the state\u2019s \u201ccramped reading\u201d of Vermont\u2019s Freedom of Choice Act. DCF argued that the Freedom of Choice Act protects only the decision to terminate a pregnancy, rather than the full range of reproductive decision-making, in an effort to justify its intervention into A.V.\u2019s pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Furthermore, the court found that DCF is not authorized to discriminate against pregnant people based on a perceived disability, as it did in this case.\r\n\r\n<b>Sarah Star, Attorney: <\/b>\u201cIn a state that passed the nation\u2019s strongest constitutional protections for reproductive liberty just 3 years ago, it is truly shocking that DCF would argue it can intrude on the lives and bodies of expectant parents. This ruling highlights several opportunities to further strengthen state law so that no other expectant parent is subjected to the nightmare A.V. endured\u2014for example, through stronger oversight of DCF\u2019s family policing practices. Vermonters can and should expect lawmakers to act with urgency to do so in the upcoming legislative session.\u201d\r\n\r\nWith this order, the case can now move to discovery.\r\n\r\nA.V. is represented by the ACLU of Vermont, Pregnancy Justice, attorney Sarah Star, and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (US) LLP.\r\n\r\nA copy of the court ruling and original filing is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acluvt.org\/cases\/av-v-vermont-dept-children-and-families-copley-hospital-and-lund\/?document=12-17-25-Order-on-Motion-to-Dismiss-#documents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>."}}],"use_default_media_contact":true,"name":"","email":"","phone":"","address":{"address_1":"","address_2":"","city":"","state":"","zip_code":"","country":"United States"},"pgp_public_key":"","spokesperson":null,"related_content":null,"issues":null,"toggle-pdf":true,"documents":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Court\u00a0rules\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0can advance\u00a0against DCF, service providers\u00a0for rights violations\u00a0of pregnant\u00a0Vermonter\u00a0 - 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