Title
Honoring and recognizing Carol Tracy, Esq. for her profound achievements advancing the legal status of women and families through pathbreaking litigation and advocacy, as well as her transformational leadership in the movement for women's rights in Philadelphia and across the nation.
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WHEREAS, Carol Tracy, Esq. is a fierce and accomplished advocate and a local and national leader in the areas of reproductive rights, violence against women, economic security, social justice, child welfare, family court reform, and women's rights and has served since 1990 as the Executive Director of the Women's Law Project, a Philadelphia-based public interest law center that focuses on advancing the legal status of women; and
WHEREAS, Tracy has been a longtime resident of Philadelphia, obtaining a history degree at the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctorate from Temple University's Beasley School of Law before spending her career fighting for a wide range of women's and civil rights in her city and beyond; and
WHEREAS, Tracy's fearless legal advocacy helped to remove barriers to treatment for pregnant women with addictions. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, she successfully challenged the widespread institutional policies of hospitals, drug detox units, and treatment centers that categorically excluded pregnant women. In addition to opening the doors of traditional treatment facilities to women, Tracy supported the emergence of gender-sensitive, trauma-informed treatment modalities for pregnant and parenting women; and
WHEREAS, In more than a dozen states, Tracy and her colleagues filed legal briefs challenging the inappropriate application of criminal child endangerment statutes to pregnant women with untreated addictions, showing the policies to be detrimental to public health and harmful to a pregnant women's dignity, autonomy, and need for treatment; and
WHEREAS, Under Tracy's leadership, the Women's Law Project served as counsel or co-counsel in numer...
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