Crack Babies Research Paper

In the late 1980s, the nation startled after news reports brought to the public’s attention the term “crack babies,” children whose mothers had consumed cocaine while pregnant. This news led to prosecution of mothers under criminal laws that already existed, such as distribution of drugs to a minor, child abuse, or assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecution of pregnant drug users was based on the superstition that crack cocaine caused severe consequences in children, for instance, social problems, dependent of welfare system and become criminals.

However, recent research disproved this believe, indicating there are no long-term effects relating to prenatal cocaine exposure. Nonetheless, utilization of illegal drugs are not safe for an unborn child. According to the American Pregnancy Association some of the risks of cocaine

consumption during pregnancy include, “Increase risk of miscarriage during early pregnancy, placental abruption, which can lead to bleeding, preterm birth and fetal death.”
The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) expressed concernment after an increasing number of pregnant women receiving prenatal care tested positive for cocaine in the late 1980s early 1990s.

The hospital wanting to gain control of the situation and hope to reduce the number of “crack babies” began conducting drug screens without the consent of the patients, and referred those who tested positive for counseling. As soon as police enforcement heard of the situation, they began arresting. The hospital soon teamed up with the police department creating the “Interagency Policy on Cocaine Abuse in Pregnancy.”

According to Ferguson vs. City of Charleston: Social and Legal Contexts, women were forcefully subjected to a drug test if they met the following criteria: “no or minimal prenatal care, unexplained preterm labor, birth defects or poor fetal growth, separation of placenta from the uterine wall, a history of drug or alcohol abuse, or intrauterine fetal death.”

An immediate arrest occurred if women tested positive for cocaine. Authorities were hoping this new policy would stop women from consuming illegal substances while

pregnant.
On the contrary, the violation of their right of privacy as well as the threat of incarceration and lost of their baby, may lead women to avoid seeking prenatal care. As a result, putting the baby at a higher risk due to the fact that a prenatal cocaine exposure pregnancy has been already at high risk. Thus, leading the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in favor of 10 women who were drug tested unknowingly or unwillingly in 2001. Nonetheless, women continue to lose custody of their children after a positive test opens a family services investigation.
However, about a year ago Bill Haslam, Republican Governor, signed a bill in 2013 enabling the state of Tennessee to press charges against pregnant mothers who are using drugs throughout their pregnancy. Therefore, Mallory Loyola became the first woman arrested on July 2014 for testing positive for methamphetamine after giving birth to her daughter. State Senator, Mike Bell expresses his disagreement with the measure, “I represent a rural district…there’s no treatment facility for these women there, and it would be a substantial drive for a woman caught in one of these situations to go to an approved treatment facility. Looking at the map of the state, there are several areas where this is going to be a problem” (Small, Deborah). Dorothy Roberts from the University of Pennsylvania also disagrees with the legislation passed in Tennessee criminalizing pregnant drug users. In Deborah Small’s YouTube clip, “Tennessee Mother Charged with Assault for Drug Use During Pregnancy, “ Dorothy declares:
It’s bad policy because there's no evidence that it actually protects children from maternal drug use, that is a health problem that should be treated as a health problem. There is also lots of evidence that prosecutions are racially biased, the vast majority of women who are prosecuted in the United States are Black women who use crack cocaine during pregnancy. Prosecuting diverts attention off the real reasons these children are vulnerable; poverty, racial discrimination, the difficulties of raising children in poverty and blames their mothers conduct instead of looking at the real roots of why children are in jeopardy in this country.
Although, I disagree with the use of substances during pregnancy, I also have the ability to comprehend and acknowledge women who are consuming drugs in pregnancy have a substance abuse problem. Therefore, women cannot simply stop their use of drugs. It’s critical to acknowledge relapse is part of the process of recovery. Women need emotional support as well as resources to overcome addiction. Therefore, prosecuting women in an area with a lack of resources and treatment facilities, as senator Mike Bell states, is targeting poor minority women. It is widely known in certain forms of prescription drugs, tobacco and alcohol are far more harmful to the fetus than crack cocaine. Nonetheless, many people, including politicians, assume and condemn mothers addicted to substances based on “morals rather than medical evidence,” (Lyons & Rittner, 1998).