Pregnant Drug Addicts Aren't Child Abusers

By Lynn M. Paltrow and Julie B. Ehrlich, Women's eNews. Posted September 26, 2006.

In recent months, pregnant women have been arrested and jailed in South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and New Hampshire, among other states, based on the claim that pregnant women can be considered child abusers even before they have given birth.

Women targeted for these arrests are usually those with untreated drug or alcohol problems.

Other women have also been arrested for endangering the fetus by not getting to the hospital quickly enough on the day of delivery and by not following doctor's advice to get bed rest. One woman who suffered a stillbirth was arrested for murder based on the claim that by exercising her right to medical decision-making and postponing a Caesarean section, she caused the death of her child.

Law enforcement officials often justify the application of criminal laws to pregnant women by claiming that the arrest and imprisonment of pregnant women will protect fetuses and advance children's health.

"We have to look at each fact to determine what the right thing is to do to protect the children," Jerry Peace, a South Carolina prosecutor, said recently.

But every leading medical organization to address this issue -- including the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Nurse Midwives, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the March of Dimes -- has concluded that the problem of alcohol and drug use during pregnancy is a health issue best addressed through education and community-based family treatment, not through the criminal justice system.

As leading public health and child welfare groups have long noted, pregnant women do not experience alcoholism and other drug dependencies because they want to harm their fetuses or because they don't care about their children. Threats Don't Work

Medical knowledge about addiction and dependency treatment demonstrates that patients do not, and cannot, simply stop their drug use as a result of threats of arrest or other negative consequences. This is one reason why threat-based approaches do not work to stop drug use or to protect children. Such approaches have, in fact, been shown to deter pregnant women not from using drugs but rather from seeking prenatal care and what little drug and alcohol treatment may be available to them.

Health risks to women, fetuses and children -- whether arising from poverty, inadequate nutrition, exposure to alcohol, drugs or other factors -- can be mitigated through prenatal and continuing medical care and counseling.

For this to be effective, however, the woman must trust her health care providers to safeguard her confidences and to stand by her while she attempts to improve her health, even if those efforts are not always successful. Transforming health care encounters into grounds for prosecution and turning health care professionals into agents of law enforcement destroys this all-important trust.

Not only does the threat of arrest deter women from seeking care that could further both maternal and fetal health, but the imprisonment of pregnant women itself also poses significant dangers.

A 2005 Maryland case belies any claim that arresting pregnant women protects fetuses, children or families.

Kari Parsons was imprisoned specifically to protect the health of her fetus.

She was arrested when she was seven months pregnant because a drug test mandated as part of her probation for shoplifting returned a positive result. Though standard practice is to release people arrested for probation violations on their own recognizance until their later court dates, the judge in Parsons' case sent her to jail, citing his interest in protecting the fetus's health. Born in a Jail Cell

Yet three weeks later, because of the judge's ostensible concern for the fetus, Parsons' son was born in conditions that put both his and his mother's health and life at risk.

Lynn M. Paltrow is executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

Julie B. Ehrlich is a law student at New York University and legal intern at National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

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