GIST: "What
does the war on drugs have to do with the war on abortion? More than
you’d think: the anti-choice movement has been successfully using drug
laws to give fetuses legal personhood rights for years. Today, 18 states
consider drug use while pregnant to be child abuse - a standard that not only punishes pregnant women who need help, but that has profound implications for reproductive rights. Consider the case of Kenlissia Jones, a 23-year-old woman in Georgia
who ordered Cytotec off the internet to end her pregnancy. We don’t know
why she didn’t seek out an abortion legally (though it could be because 96% of counties in Georgia lack an abortion provider). What we do know is that, at 5 months, Jones’ pregnancy ended in the back of her neighbor’s car en route to the hospital, and that she was arrested soon after for malice murder, a crime that carries the chance of life in prison or the death penalty. The murder charge against Jones was eventually dropped;
Georgia law doesn’t allow for the prosecution of women who end their
own pregnancies. For most, the story ends there: reproductive rights
activists were understandably relieved
and the media moved on to the next story. But the one charge against
her that remains – possession of a dangerous drug – underpins a
dangerous anti-choice strategy that has gone ignored for too long. As Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women
told me: “if you don’t address the war on drugs, you can’t address the
war on abortion.” Paltrow, whose work, in part, involves cases in which
women have been arrested for using drugs while pregnant, says “my head
is exploding around this.” We’ve been saying this for 15 years: if you set a
precedent that a woman who tests positive for drugs is guilty of child
abuse, then certainly a woman who induces abortion by drugs is guilty as
well..........Already, some medical professionals are taking action. Some 15 states
require health care professionals to report suspected drug use by
pregnant women, but the American Congress of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists have come out in opposition
to doctors reporting patients, noting: “seeking obstetric–gynecologic
care should not expose a woman to criminal or civil penalties.” And
after Jones was arrested, a local doctor filed a complaint
against the hospital that treated her, citing privacy concerns and
saying: “the law is designed so that people do not fail to seek medical
attention for fear of being prosecuted.”
But we need more than doctors protecting their patients: we need
policy change, public awareness and pro-choice organizations that
prioritize ending drug laws that target pregnant women. The war on drugs
is racist,
it criminalizes people who need help and it is attacking women’s bodily
autonomy – fighting it is a core feminist issue. So let’s start acting
like it."
The entire commentary can be found at:
The entire commentary can be found at:
