4 Comments to 'Knocked up and locked up'
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Knocked up and locked up
Posted By katie allison granju
Folks are debating the wisdom of jailing a 7-months-pregnant woman who showed up at a Williamson County hospital seeking medical care, after she was found to have cocaine in her system:
Some health-care officials fear the February arrest and Jones’ possible conviction could cause other pregnant women who use drugs to go without medical care for fear of being tested and then arrested.
“This sends the message to pregnant women: Don’t seek emergency medical care. Don’t trust law enforcement. Don’t seek prenatal medical care,” said Dr. Carolyn Szetela, an assistant professor of professional and medical education at Meharry Medical College.
Others argue that society is obliged to protect unborn children and that the case was handled as it should have been.
“If she used cocaine, she put her baby in jeopardy,” said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life. “It is child abuse. It certainly is.”
There is no protocol on how Tennessee hospitals should respond when a pregnant woman is found to have drugs in her system. Hospitals make the decision on a case-by-case basis, according to Craig Becker, president of the Tennessee Hospital Association.
This is a slippery slope. What about a pregnant woman who uses over the counter medications that are contraindicated during pregnancy? What about a pregnant woman who smokes?
Apr 24th, 2008
The difference is over-the-counter meds, tobacco and alcohol are legal.
I worked on a potential law case where a mother smoked crack and used cocaine.She was not arrested during or after her pregnacy.
Her baby was born with a heart valve problem. When the child was 3, the mother opted to have the valve problem surgically corrected, and her child ended up blind, paralyzed and a vegetable. There are several reasons the office where I worked didn’t take this case, and the mother’s cocaine use was a big reason. (Apparently cocaine can cause heart defects in babies. The surgery was also elective.) This was a very, very sad case. The mother ended up abandoning the family.
I also have a friend who found a lump in one of his testicles and refused to see a doctor about it because he had marijuana in his system and thought his insurance wouldn’t cover any treatment. (He was misunderstanding language in this health insurance policy.) I know he ceased smoking for a while to clear his system, but I still don’t think he ever got it checked out.
Illegal drug use by a mother is entirely different than someone taking a medicine that is contraindicated.
Why is it that journalists always resort to moral relativism when trying to defend indefensible behavior?
Duke is right. What if, what if, what if. Deal with the situation at hand; she was on crack and pregnant. What choice is there–the baby needs a break. The crack head makes her own choices.