We identified 24 judicial opinions published between 1977 and 2015 in cases involving 29 women prosecuted in 19 states. Since 1973, authorities in at least 45 states have tried to prosecute women for exposing unborn children to drugs. "Opioids are what we worry about most," he explained. Psychiatrists should be involved with drug treatment courts to ensure that any court-compelled treatment meets the complex medical and psychosocial needs of pregnant women with substance use disorders. New Jersey, however, does not view drug use during pregnancy as constituting child abuse or neglect on its own, unlike other states. Call 1-800-GEORGIA to verify that a website is an official website of the State of Georgia. Prescribed medicines. The use of tobacco and alcohol are common (these are discussed in Sections 12 and 13) but the use of illicit substances and the misuse of prescription medications is also important. App. State of Georgia government websites and email systems use georgia.gov or ga.gov at the end of the address. Key takeaways: In some states in the U.S., healthcare providers are required by law to report substance use during pregnancy. However, fentanyl has also been manufactured illicitly, and its distribution is on the rise. Drug addiction is a serious problem, especially when the drug addict is pregnant. Although briefs from medical or public health organizations supporting the defendants' position were submitted to the court in 29 percent of the cases (n = 7), only one majority ruling directly referenced a medical or public health organization amicus brief. Clear evidence suggests that recognizing the substance exposed infant and . CDC twenty four seven. The Center houses the Emory Neurodevelopmental Exposures Clinic (ENEC), a multidisciplinary clinic dedicated to providing evaluation and intervention services to individuals exposed to substances in pregnancy. For example, Amanda Kimbrough's child was born prematurely and died shortly after birth, having tested positive for methamphetamine. You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link. Civil child abuse proceedings are explicitly permitted in 18 states.9 These may lead to termination of parental rights, but not to prison sentences. State legislators, law enforcement officials, and physicians have struggled to reach consensus on how to identify, treat, and possibly punish women who abuse illegal substances during pregnancy. Some research shows that marijuana use during pregnancy is linked to health concerns, including high use of other substances that may impact pregnancy and infant health such as tobacco, and developmental problems in adolescents. The report pays particular attention to the impact of the 'chemical endangerment' law in Alabama, the state that has carried out the most prosecutions against pregnant women; and Tennessee's 'fetal assault' law, which between 2014 and 2016 made it a crime to give birth to a child showing symptoms of drug exposure. Kansas and Nebraska have no reporting or testing requirements, the survey says. Three of the nine mothers arrested that year tested positive for marijuana, and all were held on $100,000 bonds. Severalstudiesdocument that hospital staff disproportionately drug test and report to child protective services low-income women andwomen of color. The use of prescription drugs during pregnancy, excluding supplements, in Ethiopia was high. In many places, women lose their children or end up in behind bars, sometimes even if the drug was prescribed. Heavy use of marijuana - that is, marijuana with high amounts of THC - has been linked to decreased fertility in both men and women. These same legislators would be hard-pressed to take babies away from mothers who were struggling with medical treatment for hypertension or diabetes. donate today. Research projects funded by both state and federal agencies continue to examine effects of prenatal exposure on development, evaluate intervention programs, and describe the clinic population using comprehensive databases. Pregnancy. Daily/near daily cannabis use in the past month increased from 0.9% to 3.4% among pregnant women overall, and from 1.8% to 5.3% during the first trimester; from 0.6% to 2.5% during . Prescription Opioid Pain Reliever Use During Pregnancy, The US Opioid Crisis & Maternal Infant Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 10 states prohibit publicly funded drug treatment programs from discriminating against pregnant people. Drug use is an uncommon cause of birth defects, yet approximately 200,000 children (3-5% of live births) are born with birth defects each year. Heroin is an illicit opioid. In Johnson v. State, the defendant was charged and convicted of two counts of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor via the umbilical cord after she reported to the treating obstetrician that she had smoked marijuana and crack cocaine the day she went into labor. The child was placed with CPS and now is in the custody of the great grandmother. Eighteen states have laws that say drug use during pregnancy is child abuse. Despite progress in the criminal legal system, the drug war remains almost unchallenged in the child protection system, and it is wreaking havoc on families. She had become dependent on opioids, but when she learned she was pregnant, she immediately tried to enroll in a medication assisted treatment (MAT) program. remove barriers to pregnant women with substance use disorders from getting evidence-based treatment that's tailored to their unique needs. Tobacco and alcohol are the most commonly abused substances, followed by marijuana and cocaine. Criminal or civil penalties discourage women from seeking prenatal care they need for fear of having their drug use discovered, critics say. Arizonaslegislation, which became law in April, permits termination of a mothers parental rights, either immediately when her newborn is born or within one year of her newborns birth, depending on how chronic the illicit drug use appears to the court. Trainings on maternal substance abuse, child development, alcohol and other drug related effects are conducted for prevention providers. In females, there is evidence that marijuana use may disrupt the menstrual cycle. Despite the opposition of medical and public health professionals, several state legislatures are considering laws that permit child abuse charges for substance use during pregnancy. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Additional factors were relevant to the stated judicial rationale in at least some of the cases. Another major concern is addressing the harm that a child of any age can \ suffer when a parent's use of alcohol or other substances leads to neglect of the child, or the child is exposed to illegal drug activity. For example, a woman in New Jersey faced civil child abuse and neglect proceedings for complying with her doctor's recommendation to stay on methadone treatment while pregnant,57 the gold standard treatment for opioid dependency during pregnancy.53 The proceedings against her were ultimately thrown out by an appellate court. Drug Use by State: Problem Areas. There is no known safe amount of alcohol use during pregnancy or while trying to get pregnant. A newborn infant's death nearly 15 years ago is still causing a fierce legislative battle in Arizona and other states around the country. In three of the cases in which medical expert testimony was referenced, the expert testimony was contradictory. App.3d 214 (Cal. Facts are largely determined at the trial level. 488. first criminal charges brought against a woman for using drugs during pregnancy came in 1977 against Margaret Reyes. A mother taking illegal drugs during pregnancy increases her risk for anemia, blood and heart infections, skin infections, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases. Cocaine (including crack cocaine) and methamphetamine (speed, or ice) are powerful stimulants that effect the central nervous system. The South Carolina Supreme Court held that a viable fetus is a "person" under the state's criminal child-endangerment statute and that "maternal acts endangering or likely to endanger the life, comfort, or health of a viable fetus" constitute criminal child abuse. To learn about CDC activities to educate the public about the harms of tobacco use, visit Tips From Former Smokers (Tips) from the Office on Smoking and Health. First, they say the developing fetus and newborn will be harmed by prenatal exposure to illicit substances. These 24 cases included 29 women in 19 states who were prosecuted for criminal charges related to harm to a fetus or child as a result of substance use during pregnancy. Hence, health care providers should select relatively safe drugs. For more information, see What You Need to Know About Marijuana Use and Pregnancyand The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research (2017). State Policies on Substance Use During Pregnancy. This claim disregards the fact that drug addiction is ahealth issuewith biological, behavioral, and genetic dimensions, and similar to other health conditions, itdoes not respond wellto artificially imposed treatment timelines or mandated treatment. Convictions were upheld only in Alabama and South Carolina, involving a total of four women. 1977), State v. Gethers, 585 So.2d 1140, 1143 (Fla. Dist. And the scientific literature that suggests that substance use produces social cognitive deficits in parenting is in its infancy and rather underwhelming. Exact terminology for relevant crimes varies across states and broad inclusion criteria were used for initial case review. Eighteen states have laws that say drug use during pregnancy is child abuse. Reyes was charged with two counts of felony child endangerment for her heroin use Illegal drugs in pregnancy. It often relies on caseworker-confirmed reports of child maltreatment, despite thewell-documentedpropensity of caseworkers and family courts to base findings of child neglect on evidence of drug use alone. Studies show when a pregnant woman uses illegal drugs during pregnancy it can result in miscarriage, low birth weight, premature labor, placental abruption, seizures, respiratory problems, feeding difficulties, and death of the baby and the mother. A drug possession conviction in Georgia also results in the suspension of your driver's license. State law prohibits a medical provider from releasing information about a pregnant individuals drug or alcohol test without the patients consent. Dehumanizing Discourse, Anti-drug Law, and Policy in America: A "Crack Mother's" Nightmare . 1 Learn more at Alcohol Use in Pregnancy from the Division of Birth Defects and Infant Disorders. With the U.S. Supreme Court considering a high-profile case involving the prosecution of pregnant substance abusers, policymakers and advocates once again are confronted with the decade-old question of how best to deal with pregnant women who use drugs. We do not know the role that medical expertise and testimony played in influencing the judicial outcome at the trial court level. The mother was a drug addict. There is also no safe time during pregnancy to drink. Supporters of these laws justify the surveillance, policing, and punishment of drug-using mothers by referencing two assumptions that were touted and then discredited during and after thecrack baby scare. Similarly, in Ankrom v. State, the state supreme court found that the plain meaning of the word child is broad enough to encompass all childrenborn and unborn.18 When fetuses are included in the definition of child, the child abuse statutes are then found to be applicable to the alleged prenatal conduct. We did not examine judicial decisions regarding women who have faced civil child abuse proceedings related to prenatal substance use. Wisconsin provides priority access to pregnant people in both general and private programs. That said, there are a few things you should know about "drugs-while-pregnant" law across the U.S.: Most states have tried, at one point or another, to prosecute women for drug use during pregnancy. Only two courts found for the defendant, in part on the grounds that there was no medical evidence to support the charge. If you valued this article, please help us produce more journalism like this by making a contribution today. There may be many more unpublished trial decisions, the dimensions of which we have no way of assessing. The implication for medical experts is that advocacy efforts may be most useful when focused on state legislatures that are contemplating policies to reduce harms associated with prenatal substance abuse. The substances being abused during pregnancy can include alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and opioid addiction. While some papers estimate that 1-3% of birth defects are thought to be caused by medications taken during pregnancy, the authors could not find a source for this statement that was based on study d. In 2014, Tennessee became the first (and only) state to pass a law that criminalized drug use during pregnancy, after a district court judge added an additional six years to the prison sentence of a woman who had been involved in a methamphetamine manufacturing operation while pregnant. Later in the pregnancy, these illicit drugs may cause. In 2005, the Tennessee Court of Appeals overturned convictions based on guilty pleas for aggravated child abuse for methamphetamine use during pregnancy in two cases combined as Richards v. State.37 The judicial reasoning was that the women received ineffective assistance of counsel, in that their attorneys should have argued that their conduct fell outside the scope of the law, which at that time was intended to apply only to conduct that affected children, not fetuses. Along with counseling and behavioral therapy, opioid medications (buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone) may be used in medication assisted therapy (MAT) to treat opioid use disorder. Otherstudieshave found that babies exposed to cocaine in utero perform better on several developmental measures when left with their mothers than do those removed to foster care. The overwhelming majority of parents prosecuted by the child welfare system are poor, and parents ofcolorare overrepresented. From 2009 to 2017, the adjusted prevalence of cannabis use in the year before pregnancy increased from 6.8% to 12.5%, and the adjusted prevalence of cannabis use during pregnancy increased from 1.95% to 3.38 percent. For the purpose of this review, we identified published legal decisions regarding women criminally charged with a crime against a fetus or child for substance use during pregnancy from appellate level courts. Using cocaine or methamphetamine -- also called speed, Tina, crank, or ice -- increases the risk of miscarriage early in the pregnancy. The use of illicit substances such as cocaine and heroin during pregnancy is common. Stakeholders should ensure safe prescribing practice for pregnant women through developin Meanwhile, several states have expanded their civil child-welfare requirements to include prenatal substance use, so that prenatal drug exposure can provide grounds for terminating parental rights because of child abuse or neglect. App. Getty Creative. Opioid abuse, dependence, and addiction in pregnancy, Medication assisted treatment in US drug courts: results from a nationwide survey of availability, barriers and attitudes, Maternal-fetal rights and substance abuse: gestation without representation, Pregnant women and the use of corrections restraints and substance use commitment, New Jersey Division of Child Protection & Permanency v. His girlfriend is also a meth addict. If you regularly use drugs, it's important to tackle this now you're pregnant. Mar 02, 2022. 1 Unhealthy drug use is more commonly reported by young adults aged 18 to 25 . Criminal Charges for Child Harm from Substance Use in Pregnancy, Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, Substance and shadow: women and addiction in the United States, Pregnancy and drug use: the dangerous and unequal use of punitive measures, Fetal protection laws: moral panic and the new constitutional battlefront, Clinical, ethical, and legal considerations in pregnant women with opioid abuse, American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Substance Abuse, Council on Addiction Psychiatry, American Psychiatric Association, Position statement on the care of pregnant and newly delivered women addicts, ACOG Committee Opinion No 473. Although this may be the case, the medical care mandated by many drug treatment courts falls well below the standard of care required for some pregnant women.53,54, Of note, the cases loosely reflect epidemiological trends in patterns of drugs of choice. This is a sad situation. Here is a survey of state laws. This evolution over time may reflect contemporaneous moral panic linked to the potential deleterious effects of particular substances on fetal outcomes.1. Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, even as some states have legalized it for recreational and medicinal use. 19 states have either created or funded drug treatment programs specifically targeted to those who are pregnant, and 17 states and the District of Columbia provide pregnant people with priority access to state-funded drug treatment programs. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. In 2014, Tennessee made national news when it became the first state in the country to pass a law specifically making it a crime to use drugs while pregnant. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page. Second, they claim that drug use during pregnancy is a reliable indicator of parental unfitness. They also found that cocaine users were more likely to use alcohol or other drugs during pregnancy: 88 percent of pregnant cocaine users smoked, 80 percent consumed alcohol, 72 percent smoked marijuana, 14 percent used opiates and 9 percent used other illicit drugs. If you or someone you know has a drug problem, seek help. Despite a lack of criminal statutes specifically targeting substance use by pregnant women in other states, women have been charged and, infrequently, convicted of a range of criminal offenses for illicit substance use while pregnant, including child abuse, assault, manslaughter, and murder.15 In two states, South Carolina and Alabama, these convictions have been upheld by the state supreme court.16,,18 The effect of these rulings is to permit women to be convicted for substance use during pregnancy under existing laws that are not specific to pregnancy. "Complex Calculations: How Drug Use during Pregnancy Becomes a Barrier to Prenatal Care." . To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: We take your privacy seriously. How you know. Tennessee is the only state that has enacted a law that targets substance use by pregnant women on the basis of presumed harm to the fetus or child.