States Are Throwing Pregnant Women With Drug Addictions in Jail
By Suzannah Weiss. Photos: Stocksy.
As state laws continue to limit women's reproductive freedom by preventing them from ending pregnancies, another type of law is less frequently discussed: those that govern what women can and cannot do while they're pregnant. A new Amnesty International report examines the devastating effects of pregnancy criminalization laws, which punish women for drug abuse and other behaviors that could damage a fetus.
38 states have fetal assault laws, which make fetuses potential crime victims. And in 23 of these states, it doesn't even matter how old the fetus is—it could have just been conceived. This legislation often targets women with drug addictions, but the laws end up punishing far more than that. Women have also gotten in trouble for falling down stairs, riding in cars without seat belts, attempting suicide, and declining medical treatment. "Pregnant women are not always aware that what they are doing could be considered a crime," the report says. One woman charged with "chemical endangerment" (exposing children to drugs) in Alabama didn't even know she was pregnant.
In these desperate circumstances, women go to great lengths to avoid punishment, sometimes with tragic results. One woman in Tennessee—which criminalized giving birth to a baby with signs of drug exposure in 2014—abandoned her baby to hide from police. Another gave birth alone in her car while attempting to drive to Georgia, where she wouldn't be prosecuted. Another got an abortion largely to avoid the stress of potential charges. "The threat of jail is like putting a noose around your neck," a mother who lost custody of a child over drug addiction told Amnesty International.
For the same reasons, women struggling with drug abuse and other health problems don't always feel safe seeking or accepting help. "In my town, I was worried about going to the doctor because if you test positive [for drugs], bam, you’re slapped with a ‘chemical endangerment’ charge," said one Alabama woman.
"These laws put pregnant women in a double bind, forcing them to choose between risking their health and risking punishment,” Carrie Eisert, Policy Adviser at Amnesty International and author of the report, said in a press release. "Drug dependence is a health condition but U.S. authorities are treating it as a crime, failing to ensure treatment is available for pregnant women and then punishing them for their ongoing condition. These harsh and discriminatory laws are making pregnancy more dangerous and trampling on human rights in the process."
Pregnancy discrimination laws also expose larger race and class inequality. Without clear regulations on drug testing, police disproportionately target women of color and low-income women. As a result, women arrested for their actions during pregnancy often can't afford lawyers.
Rather than penalize women for circumstances of which they themselves are often victims, lawmakers should focus on helping them recover. "Fetal and newborn health is not promoted through punitive measures but rather placed in jeopardy when pregnant women face criminal charges and incarceration," the report says. "Pregnant women who are dependent on drugs need support, assistance, and access to healthcare and drug treatment services, which currently remain largely inaccessible for them. They should not receive punishment."
This story originally appeared on Glamour.
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