Alabama House Bill 8 amends the chemical endangerment law to define a child to include an unborn child to alleviate any obstacles for prosecutors in jailing pregnant women for their inability to overcome substance use while pregnant.

Needless to say this is exactly why the Alabama Women’s Resource network and its partners, as well as national medical organizations (including the March of Dimes), have been speaking out against these senseless prosecutions.  It is scary (SCARY) to think that D.A.s and judges now get to make medical decisions for all of us with no medical training whatsoever.  

The debate over fetus and child is a red herring to divide us on the true issue, which is what is best for women, pregnancies, and babies. The answer is always going to be treatment over jail, prison, financial punishment, etc. There is absolutely no way someone can make a legitimate (or logical) statement that expanding the possibility of prosecuting pregnant women and new mothers is good, nor that some expansion magically makes treatment available.

Alabamians should not let this piece of legislation co-opt terminology from the abortion debate and apply it to a situation many women find themselves in that does not inherently have an abortion element to it; rather, many women are struggling to overcome substance use and be mothers. This is only done to divide us and politicize a public health and maternal issue that can be solved completely outside of entering yet another debate on the definition of a child. 

Simply put, women need greater and expanded access to treatment and their pregnancies also deserve to be spared the destruction of incarceration. AWRN has actually worked with women in this situation unlike those who villanize women from afar from not being able to overcome what is a disease by themselves.  All of the women charged under this law are very young.  These prosecutions are wrong and to think that someone is seeking an expansion of prosecutions is not just unconscionable it is an expression of complete carelessness and disregard for babies, for pregnancies, and for women.  Period.

Points of Concern Over Care of Pregnant Women in Alabama’s Criminal Justice System 

·         Overall, corrections facilities at the county and state levels were not designed for the care of pregnant women.

·         Pregnant woman should be receiving extra portions of meals and snacks. Many only receive the same portions and types of food that other inmates receive.  These meals are inadequate for anyone.  A typical lunch might be as little as two peanut butter sandwiches and two cookies.  For drink they will often receive only water not milk.

·         Pregnant women are supposed to receive pre-natal vitamins, but often do not.

·         Pregnant women who may be receiving medication to deal with on-going medical problems, including substance abuse, will likely have their treatment cut off upon entering a county jail, potentially endangering the health of their unborn child.  Additionally, prescribed medicine may be given sporadically while in jail.

·         County jails are often unresponsive for requests for medical attention.  This failure to appropriately respond to medical needs has potentially devastating impacts to pregnant women and their babies.

·         Pregnant woman are sometimes not allowed appropriate doctor’s visits and procedures, such as monthly check-ups and ultra sounds.

·         In general, many jails ignore the pregnancy of female inmates.  Officers may not believe that an inmate is pregnant and, therefore, refuse to take her to a doctor.

·         Women who have experienced a stillbirth or loss of a child may experience PTSD.  Access to mental healthcare in county jails is lacking.  Additionally, the added stress of being in a correctional facility may bring further harm to the woman.

Financial Exploitation

The fiscal note of the bill lays out that the sponsor of the bill, Representative Long, has no problem with funding these prosecutions on the backs of poor would-be mothers.

The fiscal note reads: “This bill could increase receipts to the State General Fund from fines, increase receipts to the State General Fund, county general funds and other funds to which court costs are deposited…”

Disgusting.  This money should go toward a woman’s treatment and her child’s future.  

The Future

Pretty soon the State of Alabama will just start slapping Inmate Numbers on babies themselves.  The state has run amok in its procedural and systematic violence against women.  Erroneous prosecutions like these must be stopped.