Drug Abuse in Pregnancy Essay Example
Are criminal charges the best solution for pregnant women who use illegal substances. This has been an ongoing topic for the last two or three decades. Many people would say that if a pregnant woman would test positive that having her arrested would keep the baby safe while in utero. Others would disagree saying that laws that could criminally charge pregnant women would deter them from getting prenatal care in fear of being arrested. Physicians have strongly advised pregnant women to refrain from using drugs and alcohol. But what should be done about pregnant women who ignore such warnings? In this essay we will look at both sides, the ones for and the ones against arresting addicted pregnant women.
Lock Them Up
A mother's job is to protect her child/children at all costs. From the time a baby is conceived in the mother's womb it is vulnerable to all things ingested from the mother that could be harmful. By placing laws, it protects the fetus while in utero it would cause women to restrain from using drugs or alcohol while pregnant in fear of being arrested or their child being taken after birth. Tennessee is currently the only state to specifically make it a crime to use drugs while pregnant. In Alabama and South Carolina, high courts have interpreted existing child endangerment and chemical endangerment statuses to allow prosecution of drug-using pregnant women (Miranda, Dixon, Reyes 2015). South Carolina sentenced Regina McKnight to 20 years in prison for homicide of child abuse. McKnight was addicted to crack cocaine gave birth to a still born baby with an estimated fetal age of 34-37 weeks. Autopsy revealed that the baby died in utero two days prior to delivery and had cocaine in the baby’s system (Kampschmidt, 2015). By arresting these women who abuse drugs while pregnant it will give the baby a better chance at the beginning of life.
Healthy Mom: Healthy Baby
By placing laws into effect that would criminally charge women who are addicted to illegal substances would prevent those women from obtaining prenatal care in fear of being arrested or worse yet losing custody of their child. Fear of judgmental physicians, reporting requirements and criminal action are the leading reason for the small number of pregnant substance users receiving prenatal care (Kampschmidt, 2015). There is evidence that in utero exposure to illegal drugs does not negatively impact children for life in the way some state officials fear. Many advocates, doctors, and other experts say jailing new mothers for using drugs during pregnancy does more harm than good (Khazan, 2015). Substance abuse can be hazardous both to a pregnant woman and to her fetus. However, withdrawal from opioids, for example, may cause fetal distress or even death. It is recommended that pregnant women addicted to opioids use methadone instead of detoxing. If a pregnant woman is thrown in jail or even detained for a few days, withdrawal is more likely to occur. Forcing a pregnant woman to go cold turkey in jail in some cases could cause her to lose the pregnancy. Offering treatment options and rehabs would be a better option than jail to get to the underlying cause of her addiction to be able to have a healthy mom and baby as the goal.
My Opinion
When starting this essay my opinion was that absolutely a woman who is pregnant and test positive for using illegal substances should be arrest. The reason for that opinion is that I have seen firsthand a baby withdrawing from drug addiction. I received my fourth daughter at 16 days new, to see her deal with the exposure from drugs while in utero was heartbreaking and now at 10 years old, she still has some challenges that are most like due to her birth mothers drug addiction. I am sure that my opinion was based off of my emotions. However, after spending some time researching, I have now changed my opinion. I believe that drug addicted pregnant women should be offered and possibly mandated to use resources that would help not only them but also their baby. I remember seeing that my daughter's birth mother got arrested while she was pregnant for another child. They let her go after a few hours. I was told she was too high of a risk to keep incarcerated. At that time, I did not understand why she was let go, my only thought was the unborn child but it's possible that baby would not be here today if they had kept her detained. I do believe that if a pregnant addicted women is not actively seeking some type of treatment, then it should be forced. It should be about what is best for the mother and for the unborn child.
