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Laws Affecting Pregnant Women with Substance AbuseIn 2000, the Women's Law Project, along with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, published an overview of the laws and regulations affecting pregnant women who use drugs and alcohol. The Overview also gave background to the nationwide patchwork of punitive measures taken against pregnant women for their addictions and argued for more treatment and less punishment for these women.
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Litigation: Pregnant/Parenting Women with Substance AbuseDrug Felon BanDrug Felon Ban: With several other organizations, the Women's Law Project lobbied the Pennsyvlania legislature to opt out of a federal law that banned people with drug felony convictions from receiving cash assistance or food stamps. This ban seriously hurt pregnant and parenting women with drug addictions. After years of lobbying, the Women's Law Project joined women's groups throughout the state in celebrating when Pennsylvania opted out of this ban in early 2003.Baby Boy Blackshear (Ohio 2000)In 2000, the Women's Law Project wrote an amicus brief on behalf of health and women's rights organizations arguing that allowing a county departmentof health to remove a newborn from his mother's custody based solely on the mother's drug use during her pregnancy is a policy that threatens the health and welfare of pregnant women with addictions and their children. The Ohio Supreme Court disagreed and ruled that removal was allowed under Ohio law.Crawley v. MaynardThe Women's Law Project represented Malissa Ann Crawley and Corneila Whitner before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court in their attempts to have South Carolina's policy of prosecuting pregnant women who use drugs overturned as unconstitutional (see cert reply). Unfortunately, no federal court ever heard the substance of their claims as their cases were thrown out on technicalities of the new federal habeas law (and the Supreme Court declined review of the case). Both Ms. Crawley and Ms. Whitner served prison sentences for continuing their pregnancies during their active addictions.Ferguson v. City of CharlestonAlong with the Center for Reproductive Rights and several other lawyers, the Women's Law Project represented ten women challenging the City of Charleston's public hospital's policy of drug testing pregnant women without their consent and then arresting them if they tested positive for cocaine. The case went to the United States Supreme Court which ruled that the state was not allowed to drug test and arrest the women without their consent just because they might have used drugs. The case then returned to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, where the court found that the state did indeed violate the women's rights because they did not consent to the punitive drug tests. The women now await a final verdict in their favor.United States Spreme Court documents:
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