Though The Kentucky Supreme Court Got This Pregnancy And Drugs Case Right, Pregnant Women Who Consume ILLEGAL Drugs Need Prosecution For HARMED Fetus.
From the Courier Journal Editorial: Pregnancy and drugs
The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled 5-2 last week that state law precludes a woman from being criminally charged for using illegal drugs while pregnant. The majority noted that the state's Maternal Health Act of 1992 holds that alcohol and drug abuse during pregnancy are to be treated "solely as a public health problem."
The court got a difficult case right. Ina Cochran, of Casey County, was unwittingly dragged into the abortion wars, after giving birth to a baby in 2005 who tested positive for cocaine. She was charged with "extreme indifference to the value of human life," and the prosecution seemed reflective of anti-abortion forces' efforts to endow a fetus with the full legal status of a human being.
Brian Wright, commonwealth's attorney for Casey and Adair counties who prosecuted Ms. Cochran said, "I think that perhaps it (the ruling) endangers human life in the future." (Justice Daniel J. Venters, however, argued in his dissent that Ms. Cochran was not charged with endangering her unborn child, but with "endangering her post-natal, born-alive child, which by any definition is a person.")
Kentucky undeniably has a tragic drug epidemic, with thousands addicted to legal and illegal drugs. In addition, many more engage in other risky behaviors. That's why the best approach is to decriminalize most non-violent results of addictions, chiefly in order to encourage addicts and alcoholics to get the help that they need. In the process, incidentally, such a step would discourage pregnant addicts, who otherwise might fear prosecution, from getting abortions.
Of course, pregnant women should not use illegal drugs, but it is important to recognize the difficulty of kicking addictions and to offer help. Moreover, there are also pregnant women who smoke, drink, don't get prenatal care, don't have perfect diets, gain more weight than they should, don't get the proper amount of exercise or rest, and are in abusive relationships. Who among them should be locked up?
Self-satisfied people might say all of them, but that would make this nation less like the land of the free and more like the oppressive regimes that Americans routinely condemn for oppressing women -- generally with laws passed by men.
The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled 5-2 last week that state law precludes a woman from being criminally charged for using illegal drugs while pregnant. The majority noted that the state's Maternal Health Act of 1992 holds that alcohol and drug abuse during pregnancy are to be treated "solely as a public health problem."
The court got a difficult case right. Ina Cochran, of Casey County, was unwittingly dragged into the abortion wars, after giving birth to a baby in 2005 who tested positive for cocaine. She was charged with "extreme indifference to the value of human life," and the prosecution seemed reflective of anti-abortion forces' efforts to endow a fetus with the full legal status of a human being.
Brian Wright, commonwealth's attorney for Casey and Adair counties who prosecuted Ms. Cochran said, "I think that perhaps it (the ruling) endangers human life in the future." (Justice Daniel J. Venters, however, argued in his dissent that Ms. Cochran was not charged with endangering her unborn child, but with "endangering her post-natal, born-alive child, which by any definition is a person.")
Kentucky undeniably has a tragic drug epidemic, with thousands addicted to legal and illegal drugs. In addition, many more engage in other risky behaviors. That's why the best approach is to decriminalize most non-violent results of addictions, chiefly in order to encourage addicts and alcoholics to get the help that they need. In the process, incidentally, such a step would discourage pregnant addicts, who otherwise might fear prosecution, from getting abortions.
Of course, pregnant women should not use illegal drugs, but it is important to recognize the difficulty of kicking addictions and to offer help. Moreover, there are also pregnant women who smoke, drink, don't get prenatal care, don't have perfect diets, gain more weight than they should, don't get the proper amount of exercise or rest, and are in abusive relationships. Who among them should be locked up?
Self-satisfied people might say all of them, but that would make this nation less like the land of the free and more like the oppressive regimes that Americans routinely condemn for oppressing women -- generally with laws passed by men.
Labels: News reporting
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 9:45 AM
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