Editorial Revisado por pares

Drug and alcohol use during pregnancy: We need to protect, not punish, women

2005; Elsevier BV; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.whi.2004.12.003

ISSN

1878-4321

Autores

Elizabeth Armstrong,

Tópico(s)

Migration, Health and Trauma

Resumo

Less than a week after giving birth last year, Stacey Gilligan was arrested in Glenn Falls, New York on charges of child endangerment because she drank in her 35th week of pregnancy. In Middlesex County, New Jersey, pregnant Simmone Ikerd was sentenced to 9 months in prison because, in the judge’s words, “I don’t want her using drugs. The only way I can do it is by putting her in jail. Not because I want to punish her, but because we want to save the baby” ( The Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation 2004 The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2004). Superior court judge violated pregnant women’s rights by sentencing her to prison to protect fetus, N.J. appeals court rules. Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, June 16. Available: http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/print_report.cfm?DR_ID=24224&dr_cat=2. Accessed June 28, 2004. Google Scholar ). In Oklahoma, Julie Starks was sentenced to spend the duration of her pregnancy in a Rogers County jail cell because she lived in a trailer home that was being used as a methamphetamine lab; Ms. Starks herself tested drug-free. Tayshea Aiwohi, a Hawaiian woman who used crystal methamphetamine while pregnant and breast-feeding, was charged with manslaughter when her 2-day old son died. And just this past August, Brenda Black, a South Carolina resident, was charged with homicide by child abuse after her stillborn baby tested positive for cocaine.

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