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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTennessee Legislature Passes Bill Criminalizing Pregnancy
Prosecutors have become quite fond of stretching the reach of child abuse and even murder laws to punish pregnant women for failing to deliver live or healthy babies, usually because those women used drugs during pregnancy. (Though not always.) Often the fact that the laws being used to prosecute are clearly not meant to address what women do to their own bodies while pregnant causes the cases to collapse. For instance, a recent Mississippi case I wrote about involving a mother charged with murder after her baby was stillborn was tossed out by a judge who ruled that the law wasn't meant to apply to situations such as hers.
Well, the Tennessee legislature decided to fix this problem by passing a bill through both houses that would give prosecutors broad rights to press abuse charges against women who use illegal drugs during pregnancy and then give birth to unhealthy or stillborn babies. According to RH Reality Check, if the governor of Tennessee signs the bill, it will be the first law like it in the country. The law is a reaction to the passage of the Safe Harbor Act last year, an actually good bill that allows pregnant women with drug problems to seek treatment with the knowledge that Child Protective Services will not take their babies away because of it. (The women do have to stick to the program to keep that assurance.) But law enforcement insisted on retaining the right to throw a woman in jaileven if she has stuck with the treatment programif the baby is born with problems and they decide that it must have been the drugs that did it.
I say "they decide" because even though the bill ostensibly limits prosecution to cases where the baby is "born addicted to or harmed by the narcotic drug" or "if her child dies as a result of her illegal use of a narcotic drug," history shows that prosecutors are more eager to say that drug use caused a birth defect or stillbirth than doctors are. This was evident in the Mississippi case, where the prosecutor and the state medical examiner aggressively pushed the theory that the mother's cocaine use caused the stillbirth, even though the baby was born with an umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. It's hard to imagine any other cases where assault or murder charges are brought up against someone when it's an open question if the person's actions, no matter how immoral or reckless, actually caused the injury or death in question.
Notably, the law only addresses illegal drug use, even though one drug we know for certain causes birth defects, alcohol, is perfectly legal.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/04/11/tennessee_legislature_passes_bill_to_criminalize_pregnancy_women_who_have.html
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)VOTE!!!!
Niceguy1
(2,467 posts)I Think the only time a woman should be punished is she shows up at the birthing center stoned or drunk..and that should mean they pertain to a person's competency to care for the child
Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)here in TN.
The legislature is also considering a bill to make "leeches and Jack Daniels" our official state health care program; a bill to bring back child labor for coal mining interests and new laws to criminalize saying the words or phrases 'Vagina, clitoris, menstruation and male chauvinist pig."
asjr
(10,479 posts)Rod Beauvex
(564 posts)I have mixed feelings on this. I was adopted, and my birth mother dropped me out and left the building. I've had problems throughout my life that stemmed from my birth mother using illegal drugs during pregnancy.
WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)I hope you have good therapy and can find the happiness you deserve.
I appreciate the thought, though I don't think I'm quite that damaged for life. :p
I can certainly see the effects of it, though.
WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)a sign called Chiron and this is the sign of "the wounded healer" When you survive and then thrive after a great wounding, you then have those characteristics of the wounded healer. Not that you are broken, but that you can empathize.
WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)until men make changes. Of course, it won't happen; but wouldn't it be a good campaign?
toddwv
(2,830 posts)And Russia didn't invade Crimea.
Jesus was a Republican who hated poor people.
Racism is dead in America.
Stopping people from voting is good for democracy.
I don't understand why you people want to keep obsessing over facts!