Tennessee Arrests First Mother Under Its New Pregnancy Criminalization Law

Back in April I posted this article concerning the then proposed legislation.  But as the following  article states, ",,,the first case has nothing to do with illegal narcotics — and nothing actually to do with harm to anybody,,,."
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“This law was sold as if it were just about illegal narcotics. But sure enough, the first case has nothing to do with illegal narcotics — and nothing actually to do with harm to anybody,” Lynn Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), one of the groups that’s firmly opposed to laws that criminalize drug use during pregnancy, told ThinkProgress. “There’s no injury. There’s just a positive drug test.”

The opposition to the new state law, which is the first of its kind in the country, isn’t driven solely by Paltrow’s group. Every major medical organization — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Public Health Association — has come out against efforts to arrest pregnant women who use drugs. A diverse coalition of reproductive rights and criminal justice groups in Tennessee launched a huge campaign against the proposed legislation, called “Healthcare Not Handcuffs,” to point out that threatening women with criminal charges dissuades them from coming forward to get the medical help they need.

“These punitive measures are proven to be ineffective, and yet our state chooses to waste tax dollars locking up women instead of getting them the health care they need,” Rebecca Terrell, the chair of Healthy and Free Tennessee, one of the groups involved in the opposition campaign, told ThinkProgress via email. “We are already receiving reports of women seeking out non-licensed health providers to avoid having a medical record and risking arrest. This is extremely dangerous.”

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“This view of pregnant women essentially means that as soon as you’re carrying a fertilized egg, you’ve lost your medical privacy and your right to make medical decisions,” Paltrow pointed out. “But all matters concerning pregnancy are health care matters. Pregnancy, like other health issues, should be addressed through the public health system and not through the criminal punishment system or the civil child welfare system.”

Tennessee Arrests First Mother Under Its New Pregnancy Criminalization Law

Proposed Tennessee Law Would Punish Drug-Addicted Pregnant Women - Cosmopolitan

Although I hope I don't need to say this, I am just in case. I am not advocating for women to use drugs during pregnancy (and I include tobacco, alcohol and caffeine into that mix as well). I am one who supports the solving of problems instead of making them worse, which this bill will do. Criminalization will not lead to fewer NAS babies instead, it will encourage pregnant women to lie to their doctors and shy away from prenatal care out of fear of ending up behind bars.
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On the surface, bills like this may seem to make sense. No one wants to see a women use cocaine or heroin while pregnant, nor does anyone want to see a baby present the signs of NAS. And there is evidence that Tennessee has seen an increase in the reported number of newborns born addicted to drugs in recent years. According to Dr. John Dreyzehner, the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health, 921 babies were born with NAS in 2013.

But is criminalization the answer to addiction while pregnant? Just a year ago, the answer in Tennessee was a resounding no.

In May 2013, the legislature passed the Safe Harbor Act of 2013, which was promptly signed into law by Governor Haslam. The Safe Harbor Act encourages pregnant women who have used drugs during their pregnancy to access prenatal care and rehabilitation, and in exchange, they will be given a safe harbor from having their parental rights terminated. The law sought to address the state’s burgeoning drug abuse problem in pregnant women by enabling access to care and treatment without the looming threat of criminalization.

Now, less than a year after that law went into effect, it seems that Tennessee is poised to do enact the very kind of punitive measures it outlawed in the Safe Harbor Act.

“They’re not letting that program have enough time to show its effects,” said Allison Glass of Healthy and Free Tennessee, a coalition that protects and promotes sexual and reproductive freedom in Tennessee.

The bill allows women to avoid prosecution if they enroll in a rehab program and complete it, but critics say it could actually keep drug-addicted pregnant women from seeking the treatment they want and need. The law, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the nation.

“Women who are addicted will no longer go to their prenatal health appointments or if they do go, they won’t be honest with their doctors because they’re afraid to end up in jail,” Glass told Cosmopolitan.com. She also noted that the medical community has rejected this bill.

Proposed Tennessee Law Would Punish Drug-Addicted Pregnant Women - Cosmopolitan