Tennessee just became the first state to jail women for their pregnancy outcomes

[Disir]

Tennessee has become the first state in the nation to pass a law criminalizing women for their pregnancy outcomes. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam took the 10 days allotted to him to consider the advice of doctors, addiction experts and reproductive health groups urging him to veto the punitive and dangerous measure that allows prosecutors to charge a woman with criminal assault if she uses illegal drugs during her pregnancy and her fetus or newborn is considered harmed as a result. Haslam ignored these recommendations — and the recommendations of nearly every major medical association, including the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy — and signed the measure anyway.

Opponents of the new law share a concern that a lack of access to health care and treatment facilities will result in the disproportionate targeting and jailing of poor mothers and mothers of color, particularly in rural districts throughout the state.

Republican state Sen. Mike Bell, one of the seven Republicans in the state Senate to vote against the measure (every Democrat in the state Senate voted in favor), recently told Salon that this lack of access is a problem he thinks will hurt the women of his district and their families. “I represent a rural district,” he said. “There’s no treatment facility for these women there, and it would be a substantial drive for a woman caught in one of these situations to go to an approved treatment facility. Looking at the map of the state, there are several areas where this is going to be a problem.”

Tennessee just became the first state that will jail women for their pregnancy outcomes - Salon.com

Nice job. There is zero reason for these women to acquire prenatal care.

 

[Noomi]

Republicans need to get their heads out of women's vaginas.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Republicans need to get their heads out of women's vaginas.

Actually if you read the actual law they punish women that KNOWINGLY damage their children before they are born. Remind me how it is ok to charge a woman for a crime if she drinks so much while pregnant that the infant is born with alcohol syndrome but we should not do the same when it is drugs?

The law does NOT punish women because they did not get prenatal care, that is a lie.

 

[holston]

Effects on Drug Addiction on Newborns - Drug Rehab for Pregnant Women Get Help Today!

Right. And some women need to get their heads out of their asses.

Withdrawal Stage After Born

Once the child is born, there are numerous side effects and health risks the child must endure in the first weeks, even months of its little life.

Club foot
Skeletal Defects
Breathing Problems
Motor Controls
Poor Hand to Eye Coordination
Balancing
Sitting Up with without support
Inability to roll from side to side
Depression
Lethargy
Poor Appetite
Reflux Problems
Restless Sleeping
Vomiting
Cry is high-pitched and very loud
Sensitivity to light
Seizures
Hyperactivity
Central nervous system damage
Lung Problems

Stomach Problems
Increased chances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Trouble eating and digesting food
Difficulty sleeping
Sleeping too much
Instability of head
Tremors
Lack of muscle tone or too much muscle
Narrowing of blood vessels due to reduced blood flow and oxygen
Very Clingy
Trouble focusing on one object
Low weight throughout life
Reduce in development
Addictive Behavior
Paralysis
Motor Development Delayed
Abnormalities of the heart
Eye Problems
Bleeding on the brain

This is a very sad however this is the cold reality for these very small victims of this devastating disease of alcoholism and drug addiction.

Drug abuse is one of the main reasons that this country is going down the toilet.

 

[holston]

The fate of drug-addicted babies | On Psychology and Neuroscience

 

[Disir]

Republicans need to get their heads out of women's vaginas.

Actually if you read the actual law they punish women that KNOWINGLY damage their children before they are born. Remind me how it is ok to charge a woman for a crime if she drinks so much while pregnant that the infant is born with alcohol syndrome but we should not do the same when it is drugs?

The law does NOT punish women because they did not get prenatal care, that is a lie.

No, it doesn't say that.
http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/108/Bill/SB1391.pdf

 

[Disir]

The fate of drug-addicted babies | On Psychology and Neuroscience

"Over the past decade, we have seen a nearly ten-fold rise in the incidence of babies born with NAS in Tennessee," the state Department of Health reported. Infants with NAS stay in the hospital longer than other babies and they may have serious medical and social problems."

But the state Health Department notwithstanding, experts in the field say that NAS doesn't actually have long-term effects, it's not accurate to call newborn infants "addicted," and that misrepresenting matters by vilifying pregnant women isn't helpful. In fact, more than 40 of them said so in an open letter last month.

More generally, leading medical groups, including the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Public Health Association reject the prosecution and punishment of pregnant women who use drugs. The groups mentioned above and many others said so in this 2011 document.

A coalition of medical, public health, women's rights, and social justice groups worked to oppose the bill as it made its way through the legislature, and then to convince Gov. Haslam to kill it. A petition with over 11,000 signatures urging him to veto the bill went to his office late last month. More than two dozen organizations devoted to ensuring families have access to health care likewise urged a veto, as did the American Association of Pediatrics, the National Perinatal Association, and International Doctors for Healthier Drug Policy.

Even acting drug czar Michael Botticelli raised a warning flag.

"Under the Obama administration, we've really tried to reframe drug policy not as a crime but as a public health-related issue, and that our response on the national level is that we not criminalize addiction," he said during a visit to Nashville as the governor pondered. "We want to make sure our response and our national strategy is based on the fact that addiction is a disease. What's important is that we create environments where we're really diminishing the stigma and the barriers, particularly for pregnant women, who often have a lot of shame and guilt about their substance abuse disorders."

Tennessee's Scary New Law Criminalizing Drug-Using Pregnant Women [FEATURE] | StoptheDrugWar.org

 

[Papageorgio]

Liberals want to control the behavior of obese people, smokers and so on, because it raises health care costs, yet they don't mind this? I have trouble in finding the logic.

 

[Disir]

Liberals want to control the behavior of obese people, smokers and so on, because it raises health care costs, yet they don't mind this? I have trouble in finding the logic.

No.

 

[LiberalMedia]

It's a womyn's ryght to choose that's at stake here. In particular, a womyn's ryght to choose to allow hyr baby to be born addicted to cigarettes, cocaine, or any other drug.

I'm with Noomi on this one. Wrongpublicans need to stay out of womyn's secularly sacred vygynys. Telling us what we can and cannot do with our own bodies, and bodies inside of our bodies, is the real crime here.

 

[Politico]

Republicans need to get their heads out of women's vaginas.

Actually if you read the actual law they punish women that KNOWINGLY damage their children before they are born. Remind me how it is ok to charge a woman for a crime if she drinks so much while pregnant that the infant is born with alcohol syndrome but we should not do the same when it is drugs?

The law does NOT punish women because they did not get prenatal care, that is a lie.

Exactly. Disir conveniently left that part out in his copy and paste knowing the reactionaries would not actually read the article.

 

[Papageorgio]

Liberals want to control the behavior of obese people, smokers and so on, because it raises health care costs, yet they don't mind this? I have trouble in finding the logic.

No.

Fine retort from someone who doesn't read or think.


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

 

[Papageorgio]

Republicans need to get their heads out of women's vaginas.

You need to comprehend what you read.


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

 

[Disir]

Liberals want to control the behavior of obese people, smokers and so on, because it raises health care costs, yet they don't mind this? I have trouble in finding the logic.

No.

Fine retort from someone who doesn't read or think.


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

I do quite a bit of both. You were done with "Liberals want to control the behavior of". That was your starting position. Any time that you are ready to read or think let me know.

 

[Disir]

Republicans need to get their heads out of women's vaginas.

Actually if you read the actual law they punish women that KNOWINGLY damage their children before they are born. Remind me how it is ok to charge a woman for a crime if she drinks so much while pregnant that the infant is born with alcohol syndrome but we should not do the same when it is drugs?

The law does NOT punish women because they did not get prenatal care, that is a lie.

Exactly. Disir conveniently left that part out in his copy and paste knowing the reactionaries would not actually read the article.

Disir did not leave that out of her copy. In fact, she brought you the text of the bill so that you could read it yourselves.
http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/108/Bill/SB1391.pdf

 

[whitehall]

Endangering a unborn baby by ingesting drugs is what? A pregnancy outcome?

 

[emilynghiem]

Also, what about MEN NOT HAVING SEX with women who are drugged out
and have either mental health or judgment issues this dangerous???

It takes TWO people to make the decision to have sex or not have sex.

Shouldn't BOTH be more careful with their choice of conditions and partners?

Effects on Drug Addiction on Newborns - Drug Rehab for Pregnant Women Get Help Today!

Right. And some women need to get their heads out of their asses.

Withdrawal Stage After Born

Once the child is born, there are numerous side effects and health risks the child must endure in the first weeks, even months of its little life.

Club foot
Skeletal Defects
Breathing Problems
Motor Controls
Poor Hand to Eye Coordination
Balancing
Sitting Up with without support
Inability to roll from side to side
Depression
Lethargy
Poor Appetite
Reflux Problems
Restless Sleeping
Vomiting
Cry is high-pitched and very loud
Sensitivity to light
Seizures
Hyperactivity
Central nervous system damage
Lung Problems

Stomach Problems
Increased chances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Trouble eating and digesting food
Difficulty sleeping
Sleeping too much
Instability of head
Tremors
Lack of muscle tone or too much muscle
Narrowing of blood vessels due to reduced blood flow and oxygen
Very Clingy
Trouble focusing on one object
Low weight throughout life
Reduce in development
Addictive Behavior
Paralysis
Motor Development Delayed
Abnormalities of the heart
Eye Problems
Bleeding on the brain

This is a very sad however this is the cold reality for these very small victims of this devastating disease of alcoholism and drug addiction.

Drug abuse is one of the main reasons that this country is going down the toilet.

 

[holston]

Also, what about MEN NOT HAVING SEX with women who are drugged out
and have either mental health or judgment issues this dangerous???

It takes TWO people to make the decision to have sex or not have sex.

Shouldn't BOTH be more careful with their choice of conditions and partners?

I would say so.

I suppose there are many hypothetical circumstances a person could contrive in their imaginations in order to justify about anything. Everyone has a tendency to do just that.

The problem is, that try as we may, no amount of trying to shift the blame to someone else excuses us from our own personal responsibility.


1 Corinthians 6
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body[c] and in your spirit, which are God’s.

I know, I know.

Repeating those sorts of things really gripes a lot of people. There is no more sure way to cause people to get it in for you than to repeat a verse from the Bible that prohibits or condemns whatever it is the person is seeking a license to do.

They are sure to say to themselves, "How dare that blankety blanken so and so 'spew' his self righteous hypocrisy at me".
Thereafter they are constantly on the look out for some means through which to get even.

It's strange how our culture has degenerated to the point where it is considered socially more offensive to encourage self discipline or abstinence on moral grounds than to just be openly foul.

The argument is always given that since nobody's perfect, no one should even try. And that anyone who makes any appeal on moral grounds just has to be a hypocrite. And that it is better to be openly promiscuous than to to be charged as such.


Yes, men have a responsibility to conduct themselves in a morally upright way.
That's not saying that they do, but that they ought to.

And they ought to whether anyone else does or not. The same rule applies to everyone even if I do say so myself.

I'm not the one who made all those rules and admonitions up. You can deny them all you want. You can blame me as well.
It's no comfort to me that violating and scoffing about them as it's popular to do would make me part of the majority.


What we are talking about is not so much a woman's body and her right to do with it as she pleases. Rather, we are talking about a sentient being that feels pain being subject to the kind of duress and misery that drug addiction brings through no fault of their own.
We are also talking about the type of permanent damage that untoward chemical substances being introduced at a formative stage of growth can induce into that being.

Damage may not only be done to the developing child who will have to suffer with it throughout his life; there are also costs to society resulting from it as well.

So we are talking about the welfare of OTHER people as well as the woman who feels that she has the right to do anything AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T HURT ANYONE ELSE.

To say that there are lecherous and corrupt men, which a woman may not control, does nothing to relieve her of those thing which she CAN control.

There are laws against rape. They should be enforced. A wise woman would not tempt fate by deliberately exposing herself to situations in which she would be made vulnerable.