Pubdate: Fri, 13 Apr 2001
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2001 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Brian Dickerson, 248-586-2607 or DRUG-ABUSING MOMS DESERVE LOSS OF RIGHTS

In a life marked by cocaine use and criminal conduct, 33-year-old Rochelle 
Pennex has borne 13 children.

At least five of those children tested positive for cocaine at birth, 
according to testimony before an Oakland County Probate Court referee.

Ten are in foster care, and the youngest, 9-day-old Zaria, is on life 
support, the victim of paralysis, heart failure and brain damage her 
court-appointed attorney attributes to Pennex's cocaine use.

So why, a reasonable person might ask, is Pennex still walking around with 
a functioning uterus?

There are several reasons, none of them very satisfactory.

Doctors at North Oakland Medical Center reportedly offered to perform a 
tubal ligation on Pennex after Zaria was delivered -- two months 
prematurely -- on April 4. A Children's Protective Services worker 
testified that Pennex refused, explaining that she intends to have more 
children.

Zaria remained hospitalized Thursday. But neither her doctors nor the 
attorney appointed to represent the newborn baby have heard from Pennex 
since the birth.

Not easily done

Appellate courts have been understandably reluctant to sanction 
sterilization or mandatory birth control in response to criminal conduct, 
noting that lawmakers tread on dangerous ground whenever they endeavor to 
say who may and may not reproduce.

"The power to sterilize, if exercised, may have subtle, far-reaching and 
devastating effects," Justice William O. Douglas wrote in a 1942 U.S. 
Supreme Court ruling that struck down a law mandating the sterilization of 
repeat felons. "In evil or reckless hands, it can cause races or types 
which are inimical to the dominant group to wither and disappear."

On a more pragmatic level, physicians and counselors have warned that 
attempts to prosecute or sterilize women who abuse drugs while pregnant 
will only discourage expectant mothers from seeking the prenatal attention 
their babies so desperately need.

Consider the extremes

Perhaps. But assurances that her future procreative endeavors would not be 
foreclosed didn't prevent Pennex from checking out of North Oakland Medical 
Center -- over her doctor's objections -- on March 22, after an earlier 
pregnancy-related emergency drove her to seek help there.

And why, exactly, should a society that doesn't hesitate to terminate an 
abusive mother's parental rights feel so squeamish when it comes to 
interfering with her reproductive ones?

Even the most zealous firearms enthusiasts generally agree that outlaws who 
use their guns to kill or maim forfeit any moral right to bear arms. Can't 
those of us who generally defend reproductive freedom acknowledge analogous 
scenarios in which an abusive parent's right to procreate is no longer 
defensible?

It's time for policymakers to confront squarely the challenge posed by 
expectant mothers whose substance abuse has turned their wombs into torture 
chambers.

The dangers inherent in mandating birth control or sterilization have not 
diminished. But the costs of doing nothing to rein in mothers like Pennex 
are becoming exorbitant.

"If ever there's a case that's going to force people to stand up and take 
notice of the damage being done to these children," says Zaria's 
court-appointed attorney, Dan Bagdade, "this is the case."

Then again, we can always wait for No. 14.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart