The right’s favorite new quack: Terri Lynn Weaver’s dangerous baby “science”

[DonViejo]

Doctors say a new Tennessee law targeting pregnant women is nuts. But this GOP lawmaker has her own ideas

KATIE MCDONOUGH

Tennessee is the first state in the nation to have a law criminalizing pregnancy outcomes. The state’s pregnancy criminalization law was signed in April and went into effect this month. Under the new policy, prosecutors can now charge a woman with criminal assault if she uses narcotics during her pregnancy and — according to the language of the law — her fetus or newborn is considered “addicted to or harmed by the narcotic drug.”

Earlier this week, the first woman in the state was arrested under the new law — two days after she gave birth to her daughter. The policy has been denounced by doctors and major medical associations, but conservative state lawmakers have cloaked it in the language of medical necessity and compassionate treatment. When asked about concerns that the state’s rejection of the Medicaid expansion and a lack of treatment facilities throughout the Tennessee would result in the disproportionate incarceration of low-income women in rural areas, Republican state Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver told Salon, ”We’re not about jailing a bunch of women and throwing away the key — we’re about getting them help.”

But what does help actually mean? Weaver and others have cited the number of babies in the state born prenatally exposed to narcotics — something called neonatal abstinence syndrome — as the force behind the measure. But like the so-called crack baby epidemic before it, a profound misunderstanding of NAS, pregnancy and addiction has shaped the narrative around these issues. And the good science — about addiction, treatment and recovery — has receded into the background. Instead of medically accurate information about substance dependence and recovery, language about babies “born addicted” to drugs and talking points about women struggling with addiction being the “worst of the worst” prevail. In conversation with Salon, Weaver deemed the limited availability of drug treatment and healthcare in her state an entirely distinct issue from the new law. “I don’t know what to say about [how] some [women] have insurance and some do not,” she said of the lack of healthcare. “It’s a terrible thing, but I don’t want to get into that because that’s another subject.”

But if you listen to doctors, it’s not another subject. And this ignorance from lawmakers has guided a lot of dangerous policy, which is why Salon reached out to Dr. Hendree Jones, Ph.D., a professor with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and a specialist on neonatal abstinence syndrome and other issues related to pregnancy and addiction.

Our conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity:

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http://www.salon.com/2014/07/17/the_rights_favorite_new_quack_terri_lynn_weavers_dangerous_baby_science/