what does "CONSERVATISM" have to offer women? forced births, daily cavity searches, daily ultra sounds, rape: Mississippi Could Soon Jail Women for Stillbirths, Miscarriages

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what does "CONSERVATISM" have to offer women? forced births, daily
cavity searches, daily ultra sounds, rape: Mississippi Could Soon Jail
Women for Stillbirths, Miscarriages



http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/buckhalter-mississippi-stillbirth-manslaughter

Mississippi Could Soon Jail Women for Stillbirths, Miscarriages
The state's manslaughter laws weren't supposed to apply to women who
lose pregnancies. Prosecutors don't seem to care.
—By Kate Sheppard

On March 14, 2009, 31 weeks into her pregnancy, Nina Buckhalter gave
birth to a stillborn baby girl. She named the child Hayley Jade. Two
months later, a grand jury in Lamar County, Mississippi, indicted
Buckhalter for manslaughter, claiming that the then-29-year-old woman
"did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, kill Hayley Jade Buckhalter,
a human being, by culpable negligence."
The district attorney argued that methamphetamine detected in
Buckhalter's system caused Hayley Jade's death. The state Supreme
Court, which heard oral arguments on the case on April 2, is expected
to rule soon on whether the prosecution can move forward.
If prosecutors prevail in this case, the state would be setting a
"dangerous precedent" that "unintentional pregnancy loss can be
treated as a form of homicide," says Farah Diaz-Tello, a staff
attorney with National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a nonprofit legal
organization that has joined with Robert McDuff, a Mississippi civil
rights lawyer, to defend Buckhalter. If Buckhalter's case goes
forward, NAPW fears it could spur a wave of similar prosecutions in
Mississippi and other states.
Mississippi's manslaughter laws were not intended to apply in cases of
stillbirths and miscarriages. Four times between 1998 through 2002,
Mississippi lawmakers rejected proposals that would have set specific
penalties for damaging a fetus by using illegal drugs during
pregnancy. But Mississippi prosecutors say that two other state laws
allow them to charge Buckhalter. One defines of manslaughter as the
"killing of a human being, by the act, procurement, or culpable
negligence of another"; another includes "an unborn child at every
stage of gestation from conception until live birth" in the state's
definition of human beings.
The cause of any given miscarriage or stillbirth is difficult to
determine, and many experts believe there is no conclusive evidence
that exposure to drugs in utero can cause a miscarriage or stillbirth.
Because of this, prosecuting Buckhalter opens the door to
investigating and prosecuting women for any number of other potential
causes of a miscarriage or stillbirth, her lawyers argued in a filing
to the state Supreme Court—"smoking, drinking alcohol, using drugs,
exercising against doctor's orders, or failing to follow advice
regarding conditions such as obesity or hypertension." Supreme Court
Justice Leslie D. King also raised this question in the oral arguments
last month: "Doctors say women should avoid herbal tea, things like
unpasteurized cheese, lunch meats. Exactly what are the boundaries?"
Laws that criminalize hurting or killing fetuses are pitched as ways
to protect pregnant women from abuse but are often used to prosecute
those same women, NAPW says. The group has documented more than 400
cases across the country in which these laws have been used to detain
or jail pregnant women. Earlier this year, Mississippi's neighbor to
the east, Alabama, set its own precedent for prosecuting pregnant
women for drug use. In January, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld
convictions against two women—Amanda Kimbrough and Hope Ankrom—for
"chemical endangerment" of a child, under a 2006 law that was written
to punish people who expose children—not fetuses—to illegal drugs.
Kimbrough gave birth prematurely to a baby boy who died shortly
thereafter; she was charged after testing positive for meth. Ankrom
gave birth to a healthy baby boy, but she was charged after he was
found to have marijuana and cocaine in his system.
If a woman can legally terminate an unwanted pregnancy, how can she be
jailed for unintentionally ending a wanted one?
In Mississippi, Diaz-Tello says, "we're trying to avoid another ruling
like Alabama." The decision in Buckhalter's case is expected to
influence a second pending case in the state against Rennie Gibbs, a
young woman charged with "depraved heart murder" after a experiencing
a stillbirth in 2006, at age 16. A medical examiner claimed a small
amount of cocaine, found during the autopsy, caused the death. Gibbs'
case is supposed to go before a trial court later this year.
Buckhalter's lawyers contend that both Buckhalter and Gibbs are
collateral damage in the abortion wars in Mississippi, one of the most
anti-abortion states in the country. A 2011 state ballot measure there
would have granted full rights to fertilized eggs, making all
abortions illegal all the time. That measure failed, but abortion foes
have pledged to try again in 2015, and lawmakers are working hard to
close the state's last remaining abortion clinic. Charging a woman
with manslaughter for using drugs while pregnant is just a backdoor
way of establishing legal "personhood" for fetuses, says Diaz-Tello.
But as McDuff pointed out in oral arguments before the Supreme Court
last month, even the state's law defining homicide as including the
killing of a child at "every stage of gestation" includes a specific
exemption for women seeking a legal abortion. If a woman can legally
terminate an unwanted pregnancy, he argued, how can she be jailed for
unintentionally ending a wanted one?
Perhaps the most perverse impact of prosecuting Buckhalter, her
lawyers say, is that it could lead to more abortions. Fear of
prosecution "may cause a mother to seek an abortion that she might not
have otherwise have sought," particularly if she is dealing with drug
or alcohol addiction, Buckhalter's lawyers argued in a court filing.
A dozen medical and public health groups—including the American
Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists—made the same
argument in a friend-of-the-court brief submitted in the Buckhalter
case. And even for women who want to continue their pregnancy, the
medical groups contended, the threat of prosecution could actually
deter them from seeking prenatal care or drug addiction treatment, or
from sharing important information with their doctors, for fear they
may be reported.
As for Buckhalter, her lawyers say she's gotten the help she needed
since losing Hayley Jade. She became pregnant again, completed a
residential drug treatment program, and gave birth to a healthy baby.
She also finished an associate's degree at Hinds Community College,
where she was inducted into the honor society. She's a testament to
the fact that women in her situation need help, McDuff says, not jail
time.
"Obviously, you shouldn't be taking drugs while you're pregnant,"
McDuff says. "But the notion of prosecuting somebody for murder or
manslaughter, trying to send them to prison, is just crazy."