It's really strange how whenever smoking comes up, otherwise decent, principled, thoughtful people seem to lose their critical thinking skills.
NOBODY is saying smoking in pregnancy is ok. Can we not just accept that everybody here believes this and move on?
The starting point should be that women have control over their own bodies. We fight so hard for contraception and abortion rights, so hard against rape, forced marriage, FGM ... If we don't have control over our own bodies we have nothing.
I think some of you could benefit from actually reading the link I posted earlier:
The report pays particular attention to the impact of the ‘chemical endangerment’ law in Alabama, the state that has carried out the most prosecutions against pregnant women; and Tennessee’s ‘fetal assault’ law, which between 2014 and 2016 made it a crime to give birth to a child showing symptoms of drug exposure.
However, most states have some sort of ‘fetal assault’ law in place, and the trend is growing. In the 2017 legislative session, states introduced more than 300 measures to restrict sexual and reproductive rights, emblematic of a dangerous and ongoing assault on women’s rights which has escalated during the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
One woman told Amnesty International how she was charged under Alabama’s ‘chemical endangerment’ law upon suspicion of using drugs, despite being unaware she was pregnant. Another described how the threat of punishment had deterred her from seeking healthcare:
“In my town, I was worried about going to the doctor because if you test positive [for drugs], bam, you’re slapped with a ‘chemical endangerment’ charge.”
In Tennessee, one woman told Amnesty International how she had given birth on the side of the road trying to avoid going to a hospital, where she feared prosecution under the ‘fetal assault’ law.
Although the ‘fetal assault’ law in Tennessee ended in 2016, it is still in the state code and is likely to be introduced again.
The same woman described how she subsequently spent months trying to find drug dependence treatment, but was unable to find any available services that would accept her insurance. Treatment costs are greater than US$4500 per year in Tennessee.
Amnesty International has highlighted how this narrow focus on punishment, in the absence of increased funding or provisions to expand drug treatment services, means these laws are failing in their stated aim of promoting healthy pregnancies. They are also violating women’s rights to health, privacy, equality and non-discrimination.
Around the world, our rights over our bodies and reproduction are being rapidly eroded. We need to be resisting this completely and at the same time doing what we can to improve the health of pregnant women, mothers and their children. That won't be achieved by criminalisation, judgment or stigma.