and even some people who didn’t know they were pregnant. Some spent months behind bars or even gave birth in jail.to report positive drug tests to the child welfare agency, and sometimes women lose custody of newborns and older children. In many cases, women faced criminal charges even after child welfare determined their children were safe.
But advocates for women say the last decade’s crackdown has backfired, and that Alabama is training young women who have used drugs to avoid medical care and hospitals when they become pregnant. They also argue the law catches women who did nothing wrong. Bendish developed a severe infection in her second trimester and lost her baby at 17 weeks. Doctors rushed her into surgery to stop her bleeding. She woke up with two police officers standing next to her hospital bed.
“There have been studies showing that punitive policies are associated with starting prenatal care later in a pregnancy,” Faherty said. “With lower likelihood of getting the recommended number of prenatal care visits. A lower likelihood of attending really important postpartum visits and a reduced likelihood of getting the really important evidence-based medication for opioid use disorder treatment.”that enforce the law, while many counties largely ignore it.
But Gann, the chief deputy district attorney for Madison County, said his office in Huntsville frequently handles cases of chemical endangerment and he believes the law benefits newborns. He said he receives an average of about two reports every week about women or babies who tested positive for drugs in the hospital.
Hendree Jones, senior advisor to UNC Horizons, a substance use treatment program for pregnant women, said programs that wait until babies are already born to offer treatment miss vital opportunities to improve the health of babies and moms. “Fetal endangerment laws not only fail to deliver the promised benefits in terms of improved fetal and infant health, but they actively undermine the realization of that goal,” said their research paper, which was published in the Georgetown Law Journal.
However, anecdotal reports of women avoiding hospital care are similar in both states. Doctors in Tennessee urged for a repeal of the law after a woman gave birthThe same thing has happened in Alabama. In late 2020, a Scottsboro woman with a previous arrest for chemical endangerment gave birth in a motel in Hartselle. Her baby had to be transported to Huntsville Hospital for treatment in the NICU, according to court records.