{"id":8602,"date":"2014-07-12T18:51:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-12T22:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=8602"},"modified":"2014-07-12T18:51:35","modified_gmt":"2014-07-12T22:51:35","slug":"tenn-mother-charged-with-assault-for-drug-use-while-pregnant-thinkprogress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2014\/07\/tenn-mother-charged-with-assault-for-drug-use-while-pregnant-thinkprogress.html","title":{"rendered":"Tenn. Mother Charged with Assault for Drug Use While Pregnant: ThinkProgress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

uses an unnecessarily tendentious headline, but these laws really are a bad idea, as I discussed here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

At the beginning of July, 26-year-old Mallory Loyola gave birth to a baby girl. Two days later, the state of Tennessee charged her with assault. Loyola is the first woman to be arrested under a new law in Tennessee<\/a> that allows the state to criminally charge mothers for potentially causing harm to their fetuses by using drugs.<\/p>\n

The legislation, which officially took effect about a week ago, stipulates<\/a> that \u201ca woman may be prosecuted for assault for the illegal use of a narcotic drug while pregnant, if her child is born addicted to or harmed by the narcotic drug.\u201d However, this may not actually apply to Loyola\u2019s case. So far, there\u2019s no evidence the young woman either used a narcotic drug or caused harm to her newborn child.<\/p>\n

According to local news reports<\/a>, Loyola tested positive for methamphetamine and admitted that she smoked that drug several days before giving birth. Meth is not considered to be a narcotic, which is a legal class<\/a> of drugs that refers to opiates<\/a> like heroin and prescription painkillers. Tennessee\u2019s new law was passed specifically in response to fears about babies being exposed to opiates in utero, something that can lead to \u201cNeonatal Abstinence Syndrome<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis law was sold as if it were just about illegal narcotics. But sure enough, the first case has nothing to do with illegal narcotics \u2014 and nothing actually to do with harm to anybody,\u201d Lynn Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), one of the groups that\u2019s firmly opposed to laws that criminalize drug use during pregnancy<\/a>, told ThinkProgress. \u201cThere\u2019s no injury. There\u2019s just a positive drug test.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The opposition to the new state law, which is the first of its kind in the country<\/a>, isn\u2019t driven solely by Paltrow\u2019s group. Every major medical organization \u2014 including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Public Health Association \u2014 has come out against<\/a> efforts to arrest pregnant women who use drugs. A diverse coalition of reproductive rights and criminal justice groups in Tennessee launched a huge campaign<\/a> against the proposed legislation, called \u201cHealthcare Not Handcuffs,\u201d to point out that threatening women with criminal charges dissuades them from coming forward to get the medical help they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese punitive measures are proven to be ineffective, and yet our state chooses to waste tax dollars locking up women instead of getting them the health care they need,\u201d Rebecca Terrell, the chair of Healthy and Free Tennessee<\/a>, one of the groups involved in the opposition campaign, told ThinkProgress via email. \u201cWe are already receiving reports of women seeking out non-licensed health providers to avoid having a medical record and risking arrest. This is extremely dangerous.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

uses an unnecessarily tendentious headline, but these laws really are a bad idea, as I discussed here: At the beginning of July, 26-year-old Mallory Loyola gave birth to a baby girl. Two days later, the state of Tennessee charged her with assault. Loyola is the first woman to be arrested under a new law in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[17,121,117,106,107,55,234],"class_list":["post-8602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-too-much-is-never-enough","tag-children-will-listen","tag-doctors-and-policemen","tag-mothers","tag-no-more-cotton-pickin-prisons","tag-prayers-to-st-joseph-cafasso","tag-prayers-to-ven-matt-talbot","tag-the-war-on-some-drugs"],"yoast_head":"\nTenn. 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