October 17, 2003
By: Siobhan Morrissey, ABA Journal eReport (American Bar Association), October 17, 2003
While most states have provisions that deal with parental responsibility for the actions of their minor children, two recent cases indicate some states are expanding on that legal concept.
May 27, 2003
MEDIA ADVISORY Contact: 917-921-7421
FOR TUESDAY, May 27th, 2003
On May 27, 2003 counsel for Regina McKnight filed a petition with U.S. Court Supreme Court requesting review of a South Carolina Supreme Court decision that effectively rewrote the state's homicide by child abuse law to permit prosecution and conviction of pregnant women who experience stillbirths.
SLIPPERY SLOPE?
November 01, 2000
By: Wyndi Marie Anderson, Point (SC), Winter 2000
In your last issue you ran an excellent story about the policy in South Carolina of using the criminal justice system to punish women who are pregnant and using drugs ["Body Politics," Fall 1999]. The story ends pointing to the possibility that the case will be used to undermine the right to choose to have an abortion and to punish women for a range of behaviors beyond drug use.
Governmental Response to Pregnant Women Who Use Alcohol or Other Drugs
October 01, 2000
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June 26, 2000
By: Wyndi Anderson, The State (SC), June 26, 2000
I read with concern your editorial, "Limits during pregnancy should be defined in law" ( May 23 ). While much of what is stated is true, the conclusion, "The idea of declaring certain activities during pregnancy to be illegal is a sound one," flies in the face of every leading medical group to address the issues of pregnancy and addiction.
Treatment, not sterilization, is the way to help addicted moms
January 30, 2000
By: Lynn M. Paltrow, J.D. and Robert Newman, M.D., (first published in the Houston Chronicle, Sunday January 30, 2000 at 4C).
Just as government data give us welcome news that crack use is on the decline, C.R.A.C.K., a private program that offers addicts $200 to use long-acting birth control or to get sterilized is attracting national support.
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Throughout the late 1980's and still today, "crack moms" and "crack babies" are the subject of vigorous public debate. Much of this public discussion has been governed by speculation and medical misinformation reported as fact in both medical journals and in the popular press and has been extremely judgmental and punitive in many instances.
Pregnant Drug Users, Fetal Persons and the Threat to Roe v. Wade
January 13, 1999
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By: Lynn Paltrow, 62 Albany Law Review 999 (1999)
Roe v. Wade marked only the beginning of the struggle for reproductive justice for all women.
Criminal Prosecutions Against Pregnant Women: National Update and Overview
January 31, 1992
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This documents the cases of an estimated 167 women who have been arrested on criminal charges because of their behavior during pregnancy or because they became pregnant while addicted to drugs.
