Alabama, Amend "Chemical Endangerment" Law that Harshly Punishes Pregnant Women
- by: Susan V
- recipient: Alabama Legislature
Alabama’s “chemical endangerment of a child” law should be protecting developing babies from harm from a mother’s drug use. But instead it’s inappropriately and unnecessarily punishing babies and their mothers.
First, the law treats a disease as a crime in a way that discourages drug dependent mothers from seeking help. Second, the law is being misused by punishing mothers who use medications responsibly and have not harmed their newborns.
Probably the most egregious abuse of this new law is illustrated by the story of Casey Shehi, told by ProPublica, of an expectant mother who took one Valium days before her son was born, when she was having a particularly difficult time sleeping
Because her baby showed no signs of the drugs in his system after she tested positive for benzodiazepines, the hospital staff assured her all was ok. However weeks later Etowah County officers showed up at Shehi's workplace and arrested her for "knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally" causing her perfectly healthy and unharmed baby "to be exposed to controlled substances in the womb"—a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
AL's child endangerment statute began as a meth-lab law that intended to force mothers into treatment. But as one Alabama DA admits, the law is now being used “a little bit different than it was designed."
The real abuse going on in AL is the crime of depriving mothers and their newborns of the natural process of bonding, which is considered one of the most important factors in healthy child development. Propublica calls the law "the country's harshest weapon against pregnant women."
Demand the state of Alabama amend this "chemical endangerment" law and, in the meantime, stop abusing it.
We, the undersigned, join a group of reputable medical experts in opposing Alabama's chemical endangerment of a child law.
We agree with experts like members of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association who encourage states to "try to curtail drug and alcohol use during pregnancy through treatment rather than criminal prosecution," according to a report by Daily Beast, which adds that The American Medical Association actually fought Alabama's Supreme court ruling that "criminalizes drug use during pregnancy." DB reports that the American Psychiatric Association issued a statement in 2001 recommending that “societal resources be directed not to punitive actions but to adequate preventive and treatment services for these woman and children.”
Furthermore, say DB, the ACLU and CDC join these organizations in their opposition to criminalizing drug dependency, and ACLU disagrees that such measures encourage pregnant women to seek help, but instead they actually do the opposite and even encourage women to seek abortions.
As Propublica aptly put it, these laws are not really about helping women get treatment for drug addiction - they are more about "anti-drug fervor and abortion politics" turning "a meth-lab law into the country's harshest weapon against pregnant women."
These laws are harsh, ineffective, and they punish the very children the laws claim to protect by depriving them of a relationship with their biological mothers and families.
We insist Alabama take a more effective and compassionate approach to drug dependency during pregnancy and amend or repeal its chemcial endangerment law.
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