Pubdate: Thu, 08 Feb 2007
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2007 The Billings Gazette
Contact:  http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women)

METH-PREGNANCY BILL CRITICIZED

CHEYENNE - A bill in the Wyoming House of Representatives to allow 
criminal prosecution of mothers who expose their children to 
methamphetamine in the womb is drawing criticism from a public health 
professionals nationwide who say it would discourage women from 
seeking medical care.

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Elaine Harvey, R-Lovell, said she 
agrees that meth addicts need treatment. But she said addicts often 
won't seek treatment on their own, and that's why the state needs to step in.

Harvey's bill, titled "Methamphetamine - endangering children before 
birth," is scheduled for final reading in the House today.

In an interview Wednesday, Harvey emphasized that her bill would 
allow drug courts to require mothers who test positive for meth use 
when they give birth to get intensive outpatient treatment, attend 
parenting classes and stay employed. "All of those can be conditions 
of the court, and it means that people stay in their own community, 
and they learn how to heal," Harvey said. "And they learn how to put 
their own family back together in their own community and their own setting."

A fiscal analysis of Harvey's bill by the state's nonpartisan 
Legislative Service Office states that there's no way to predict the 
number of women who would be sentenced to probation or incarceration 
if the bill becomes law.

Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant 
Women, based in New York, said Wednesday that the letter opposing 
Harvey's bill came together after Paltrow mentioned the proposed 
legislation at a health conference in Atlanta last month. The letter, 
addressed to the Wyoming Legislature and Gov. Dave Freudenthal, is 
signed by the American Public Health Association and more than 80 
other health organizations and professionals nationwide.

"(T)he problem of alcohol and drug use during pregnancy is a health 
issue best addressed through education and community-based treatment, 
not through the criminal justice system," the letter states.

Sheigla Murphy, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Studies at 
the Institute for Scientific Analysis in San Francisco, is among 
those who signed the letter. In a telephone interview Wednesday, 
Murphy said she has been researching and writing about pregnant drug 
users for about 30 years.

"I think they've got it a little bit backward," Murphy said of the 
Wyoming bill. "When women who are abusing drugs become pregnant, this 
is an opportunity to get them into health care, get them into 
treatment and get them out of environments where drugs are being 
used. By threatening them with jail, you just push them further underground."

Sharon Breitweiser, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wyoming, 
said Wednesday that her group shares the concern that the bill would 
deter women from seeking prenatal care. In addition, Breitweiser said 
her group is concerned that the bill seeks to advance the legal 
rights of unborn children.

"It's an agenda to recognize the unborn and advance the legal 
standing of a fetus in the law," Breitweiser said. "Many of the same 
people who are sponsoring these bills are adamantly opposed to 
abortion and they believe that life begins at conception. And they 
believe there's a state interest in protecting life from the moment 
of conception."

Harvey said Breitweiser is wrong in her suggestion that the bill is 
aimed at undermining abortion rights.

"Absolutely not," Harvey said. "This bill was so carefully worded 
that it doesn't deal with a child before it's born."

Harvey said that if a pregnant woman wants to seek drug treatment 
during pregnancy, she could not be charged under the bill.

" 'Go get treatment' - that's the message I'd like to send," Harvey 
said. "Clean up your act, and you'll never be charged."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman