Discussion for article #227613
I will be curious to see how this plays out in the States that embraced the ACA vs. those who did not. I am thinking that the widespread availability of pre-natal care and drug treatment will lead to more healthy babies being born…It’ll be interesting to examine abortion rates with that in mind, also.
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As an attorney I am curious to know whether any of these cases have reached an appellate court. If so was the constitutionality of these laws raised as a defense, both in the trial court and also in the appellate court? In other words there are clearly cases where the charges are being brought but are they resulting in criminal convictions, and, if so, are those convictions then being appealed?
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It would seem that “The reality for some of these women is the need for drugs is stronger than any maternal instinct they have,” explained Geist," is more a comment on his need to dominate women than any “concern” for a fetus. Authoritarians like him have no business in any position of power over anyone.
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It’s amazing to me how many of the these laws are rear guard vindictive actions against social change. Still pissed off that slavery ended? Figure out ways (disparities in sentencing, redlining, defund public education, etc.) to mess with the “freed”. Don’t like gay marriage? Allow employment discrimination on religious grounds. Pissed off that women get some equality? Find ways to turn them in vessels as opposed to full-fledged human beings like men.
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In addition to just the run of the mill evil misogyny and willingness to increase the number of dead and dead wanted babies, there’s a pretty big racial component here as well. One study I saw said that medical personnel were 5 times as likely to report black women for suspected drug use as to report white or hispanic women, even though (in the study) the actual rates of marijuana and cocaine use were indistinguishable. So expect plenty of racism in the application of these laws.
The other elephant in the room is fetal alcohol syndrome. Well known, well characterized. Some effects detectable down to relatively minimal reported levels of drinking (including drinking during the period before a pregnancy test would come back positive). How soon are we going to see those prosecutions? (Or for that matter, prosecutions for using prescription and OTC drugs that might harm a fetus. Any bad birth outcome will carry with it the potential for jail time.)
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Criminalizing pregnancy for “the wrong people”.
Big Republican loves you!
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Why is it that all the states that have the urgent need to protect unborn children are all red, states? Mostly southern ones. They can’t even control their own state’s drug usage?
Sad suckers.
Maybe they “anti-abortion” crowd should put their money where their mouths are, set up incubators for those 3 day old fertilized cells and raise them themselves. Jump in there kidnap the cells and prove to everyone how easy it is to take a “person at cell stage” and raise them to personhood.
The anti abortion activists are running out of sane, scientific, rational reasons to oppose abortion rights, so they’re greatly expanding the scopes of their arguments, forcing an entirely new discussion about those new rationales, and laws based on those rationales. Rather than simply moving the goal posts, they’re now changing the entire playing field. This is just a stall tactic to maintain their religios beliefs as the basis for law for a little while longer. BTW, “personhood” only applies to an American fetus. No personhood laws are applicable to an undocumented, illegal, anchor fetus. I’d bet money that if undocumented women needed abortions, the pro-life crowd would be more than happy to fund those procedures. They’d turn abortion into a tourist industry if it met with their immigration goals.
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Abuse of the fetus … irresponsible parenting … how about putting a soon to deliver mother on a donkey and trotting her off without any plans for a healthy delivery … and she ends up giving birth in a barn. I wonder how the anti-abortionists would rule on that one?
When she’s good, she’s good. But when she’s bad, she’s better.
By criminalizing neglect during pregnancy, abortion opponents are
creating “children” who must be protected earlier and earlier in
gestation, then in fact putting those children into harm’s way.
Indeed. It seems to me that a pregnant woman who lacks “maternal instinct” (which presumably includes not wanting a child) and uses drugs while pregnant is an argument for legal and available abortion.