Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women in the United States, 1973–2005: Implications for Women's Legal Status and Public Health

Abstract

In November 2011, the citizens of Mississippi voted down Proposition 26, a "personhood" measure that sought to establish separate constitutional rights for fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses. This proposition raised the question of whether such measures could be used as the basis for depriving pregnant women of their liberty through arrests or forced medical interventions. Over the past four decades, descriptions of selected subsets of arrests and forced interventions on pregnant women have been published. Such cases, however, have never been systematically identified and documented, nor has the basis for the deprivations of liberty been comprehensively examined. In this article we report on 413 cases from 1973 to 2005 in which a woman's pregnancy was a necessary factor leading to attempted and actual deprivations of a woman's physical liberty. First, we describe key characteristics of the cases and the women, including socioeconomic status and race. Second, we investigate the legal claims made to justify the arrests, detentions, and forced interventions. Third, we explore the role played by health care providers. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings and the likely impact of personhood measures on pregnant women's liberty and on maternal, fetal, and child health.

Forty Years of State Alcohol and Pregnancy Policies in the USA: Best Practices for Public Health or Efforts to Restrict Women’s Reproductive Rights?

“…The key longitudinal pattern is that alcohol and pregnancy policy environments have become mixed primarily through states with supportive alcohol and pregnancy policies adding one or more punitive policies. This trend is worrying because research related to drug use during pregnancy suggests punitive policies lead women to avoid and delay entering prenatal care and substance abuse treatment (Jessup et al, 2003;Roberts and Pies, 2011) and are disproportionally applied to Black women (Paltrow & Flavin, 2013;Roberts et al, 2014). If punitive policies related to alcohol use during pregnancy function similarly to punitive policies related to drug use during pregnancy in leading to delays in entering treatment, the increase in punitive policies related to alcohol use during pregnancy may be particularly concerning, as research suggests that women needing treatment for alcohol use disorders face more barriers than men in accessing treatment (Alvanzo et al, 2014;Verissimo and Grella, 2017) and that delays in accessing treatment remains an impediment to successful treatment completion among pregnant women (Albrecht et al, 2011).…”

Criminalizing substance use in pregnancy: misplaced priorities

“…Eighteen states mandate reporting of suspected prenatal substance use and four mandate testing, despite dissenting statements from numerous medical organizations [14]. Even in the absence of such mandates, hospital staff have been found to violate confidentiality by reporting patients to authorities [15]. Alarmingly, lowincome and minority women may be affected disproportionately.…”

Ethical challenges in FASD prevention: Scientific uncertainty, stigma, and respect for women’s autonomy

“…25,26 Thus, in FASD prevention, there is a tension between on the one hand promoting strong messages that are convincing and on the other minimizing harmful and judgemental messages that can propagate stigma. Unfortunately, examples of overly strong and blameful messages can be found both in the Canadian 27 and international media, [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] as well as in public health campaigns both here 37 and abroad. [38][39][40] How to communicate in light of the risk of stigmatizing individuals is an important challenge that public health must face.…”