The government should leave women alone. Keep their hands out of her womb. I don't support drug use while pregnant, but its up to them to fuck it all up.

what about the babies? I mean, if the mothers are delivering the goods, then the babies are receiving them... I say lock them up too.

I wish I could say "I can't believe I'm reading an article defending women who use drugs while pregnant", but I can't do that.

As mentioned in a different article about babies... another perfect example of why you should need a license to have children.

But on the topic at hand, locking women up for doing drugs while pregnant isn't going to change anything; They shouldn't be doing meth in the first place, especially when with child. But if the mother is in jail, the baby is still affected by meth (if there is a birth defect risk, which I'm sure there is) and the jail populous has risen even more.

Although I do think the child should be taken away, I mean if you hit... *ahem* "discipline" your child you have the chance of losing him/her, so why not for doing meth.

You know, I've seen Chris Rock's "Never Scared" about fifty times so far, and the bit he does about our govnernment legalizing some drugs just made sense to me..."They don't want you to buy your drugs, they want you to buy 'their' drugs.." It finally hit me that I was asleep! I guess what I'm trying to say is I agree with codyp, government should keep its hands out of the womb.

I didn't see anything about charging pregnant meth users with prenatal child abuse in the Iowa link you put up there. I didn't even see any discussion of the criminal justice system at all. The title of that piece seems a bit misleading, because what I saw in the actual piece was a focus on post-birth problems caused by neglect and abuse at the hands of drug-addled parents, and the problems in early development that can happen when a child is born into a situation with parents who are already using and unable to provide proper care. I don't really see anything wrong with taking action to protect children in bad situations.

Do you have other information that that state is planning to increase criminal penalties for pregnant meth users, or charge them with child abuse in addition to drug use? I don't doubt that that may have been proposed, but I didn't see anything about that in the links provided. Maybe I missed it.

Just for all y'all who are all "meth is bad for kids, those women *should* be locked up!" folks--just exactly how is locking up women addressing the problem? How is it going to help children to throw their mothers in jail?

Or is it just about making us feel morally superior to those bad, bad meth users?

Necia, poke around on the NAPW website a little bit--they've got literally dozens of relevant cases and articles over there.

Which is cheaper in the long run: a pregnant recovering addict with a job and some decent prospects for future advancement, or a pregnant meth junkie rotting in the klink somewhere in Missouri?

I personally saw meth nearly destroy my ex-wife and wreck my marriage. It is bad shit.

I couldn't imagine a pregnant woman doing meth. Just a horrible deal for the mom and the baby.

Actually, I'm pretty irked about the whole "I can't believe I'm reading someone defending women who use drugs while pregnant" line (and the comment above that one).

Look, folks: what about if we phrase it differently. Like, throwing users in jail not because they're users, but *because they got pregnant*? Does that help? Or maybe what about the argument that people's rights don't end when they get knocked up? Or perhaps that the argument that what I chooses to do with/to one's own body is up to me--an argument I assume we all support, what with subscribing to SG and all--applies to women as well as to men?

What's the fucking difference between prosecuting women who use drugs while pregnant and prosecuting women who, say, smoke? Or eat too much crap? Or stay in relationships with abusive guys? And why not prosecute men who use drugs--after all, drug use can damage your sperm--for child abuse if they knock some chick up?

Or do you all think that equality and autonomy are just perfectly fine for everyone except pregnant women, who are basically vessels containing a baby?

No one's saying that using meth--or a lot of other shit--isn't a bad idea, or that being fucked up and having kids isn't a sad, fucked-up state of affairs. But if you want to start throwing people in jail for having problems, you might want to think about what that means.

Thanks. I did find some mention of at least the fact that Iowa addresses the issue of pregnant drug users in their child civil welfare statutes (which doesn't surprise me; I just didn't see it in that Iowa radio article). I'll have to look around on that site more.

And I agree that it doesn't help anyone to toss the mothers in jail, whether they're pregnant or have already given birth. That does nothing to treat a drug addiction. Most of these children won't have to be protected from their parents if we do what's necessary to get their parents help.

locking them up wont solve the problem - but its a start - the children need to be protected. i am a teacher and have to deal with crack babies that are now 17 and 18. this for once isn't anti-drug government prapoganda - this is real serious shit!

i have a 17 year old visualy impaired mildly retarded student who asked me - in all seriousness - is it going to get worse? i know i am here (in special ed,) because my mom was a crackhead - but is it going to get worse - is there something they're not telling me?

i am really afraid of what problems the meth babies will have.

Because the issue is not "what intoxicants does this person use?" but "what kind of a parent are they?" - and drug use or drinking does not in and of itself make people into bad parents.

no not - in itself - but is it a great start to being a total shit of a parent!