When Common Sense Isn’t So Common
By admin Sometimes I think the term “common sense” is an oxymoron. Or a paradox, at the very least. Because the things that make the most sense are often in opposition to the common view.
A good example is the punishment of pregnant women. My common sense indicates that prosecuting pregnant women for anything and everything they do during pregnancy that might — or might not — affect fetal development is a bad idea. Take, by way of example, the case of Theresa Hernandez. Ms. Hernandez, who lives in Oklahoma, is being tried for first degree murder for suffering a stillbirth at 32 weeks of pregnancy. The prosecution is based on a “highly questionable” (according to NAPW) claim that Ms. Hernandez’s use of illicit drugs during her pregnancy caused the pregnancy loss.
My “common sense” tells me that prosecutions like these — which have taken place in the majority of states and have affected the lives of almost 1000 women — are bad for public health. As Dr. Dana Stone, the Oklahoma head of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists explains it in a National Advocates for Pregnant Women press release out today:
“Stillbirths and miscarriages are unfortunately a risk of pregnancy for all women. Prosecuting women for pregnancy loss based on what they allegedly did or didn’t do will only deter women from seeking prenatal care and drug treatment, and that’s ultimately bad for babies.”
over 150 other medical professionals back her up and oppose criminal justice responses to drug addiction during pregnancy.
In addition to the doctors’ concern that prosecutions drive the women most in need of prenatal care away from it, is the simple fact that any prosecutor interested in protecting fetal health would try to keep a woman as far away as possible from a jail cell. Not only are drugs as widely available in prisons as outside (if not more widely so), but jails are also notorious for providing appallingly bad prenatal and delivery care, including the shackling of women during labor and delivery.
Yet the misguided “common sense” that women who cannot beat their drug addictions while they are pregnant — a feat that is hard enough for a rich and powerful white man, never mind for a poor and pregnant woman — should be thrown in jail persists. And women’s and children’s health continues to suffer.
(NB: There’s a lot more to be said on this issue, including what to do instead of incarceration. That’ll come in many (many) more posts about this, I’m sure.)