Keywords
pregnancy, drugs, pregnant women, low-income, drug exposed infants, drug users, abortion
Abstract
Despite clear lack of intent to harm those whom they carry, drug-using pregnant women have been constructed de facto criminal perpetrators. However, drug use falls short of being prima facie evidence of intent to harm, particularly in social circumstances where drug-using economics are endemic. The cases in this article signal the limits of tolerance and the increasingly conditional nature of public welfare provision by raising the specter of a generation of urban mothers - and grandmothers - unable to care for their kids. These cases also reflect the policy-making role into which hospitals and the courts have stepped in the face of a legislative void.
Recommended Citation
Nancy D. Campbell,
THE CONSTRUCTION OF PREGNANT DRUG-USING WOMEN AS CRIMINAL PERPETRATORS,
33 Fordham Urb. L.J. 463
(2006).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol33/iss2/6