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A new report from a reproductive rights organization finds that pregnancy-related prosecutions are at an all-time high in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court decision that ended the nationwide right to abortion. And by far the most common criminal allegation facing pregnant people is that they used marijuana or other drugs during their pregnancies.<\/p>\n
Some women are even being prosecuted for medical cannabis use as registered patients under state law.<\/p>\n
The report, from the group Pregnancy Justice, identified 210 criminal cases filed against people for conduct associated with pregnancy, pregnancy loss or birth during the first year after high court\u2019s Dobbs<\/em> ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade<\/em>. Of those, 203 cases\u2014nearly 97 percent\u2014involved allegations of substance use during pregnancy. Drug use was the sole allegation in 133 of those cases.<\/p>\n Marijuana was the second most commonly cited drug in the court charges, following methamphetamines, with allegations of cannabis use appearing in 86 of the 210 cases. In more than a third of those cases, THC use was the only allegation underlying the criminal charges.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is significant that, in eighty-six cases, the police or prosecution alleged that the defendant took some form of THC during her pregnancy, and in thirty-one of those eighty-six cases, the only allegation supporting prosecution was THC use,\u201d the new report says. \u201cEven more startling, in five of those cases, the court file included statements that the defendant had a medical marijuana card, indicating that she was being charged with taking legally prescribed medication.\u201d<\/p>\n Pregnancy Justice<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moreover, Pregnancy Justice said in a press release about the report, in the \u201cvast majority of cases (191), the charges brought against the pregnant person did not require any \u2018proof\u2019 of harm to the fetus or baby, but merely a perceived risk of harm.\u201d<\/p>\n The report, \u201cPregnancy as a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs<\/em>,\u201d looks at cases from June 24, 2022 to June 23, 2023. Authors say the research \u201cis ongoing and will result in additional reports in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n While the number of pregnancy-related prosecutions has risen since the Dobbs<\/em> ruling, the report emphasizes that targeting pregnant people with drug-related charges has a history stretching back years.<\/p>\n Pregnancy Justice<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAs has been the case for decades, nearly all the cases alleged the pregnant person used a substance during pregnancy,\u201d the report says. \u201cAs drug use patterns have changed, pregnancy prosecutions have shifted from targeting the use of crack cocaine to focusing on the use of methamphetamines, amphetamines, marijuana, and opiates.\u201d<\/p>\n Authors said the project sought to explore how criminal laws would be used to prosecute pregnant people in the wake of Dobbs<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing the Dobbs<\/em> decision, we set out to answer the question, how would criminal laws be used to prosecute acts associated with pregnancy,\u201d Wendy Bach, principal investigator of the report and professor at the University of Tennessee law school, said in the press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe learned that prosecutions in the year after Dobbs represent a high-water mark in pregnancy criminalization, following from increased suspicion and surveillance of pregnant people,\u201d she said. \u201cWith this report, we hope to see both more attention on pregnancy-related prosecutions and more advocacy to reverse course on the criminalization of pregnant people.\u201d<\/p>\n NEW REPORT Why? State actors are emboldened, putting pregnant people under INCREASED surveillance and making a dire situation even worse.https:\/\/t.co\/mYgV5Ottqk<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/0b8aI8rJNL<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Pregnancy Justice | @pregnancyjust.bsky.social (@PregnancyJust) September 24, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Notably, rates of prosecution varied strikingly across the country, according to the report. Alabama, for example, was responsible for nearly half of the prosecutions, at 104, followed by Oklahoma at 68 and South Carolina at 10.<\/p>\n The majority of defendants charged in pregnancy-related cases were also low income, it notes.<\/p>\n In Oklahoma, local news in 2022 began reporting that prosecutors there were targeting pregnant women for using medical marijuana<\/a>, resulting in felony child neglect charges being filed against 26 mothers. The crime can carry up to a life prison in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n Then in July a state court ruled that people cannot be prosecuted for child neglect for legally using medical marijuana while pregnant<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2022 an Alabama Senate committee approved a bill to force women who want medical marijuana to provide a negative pregnancy test<\/a>.<\/p>\n Top Congressional Democrats Push DEA To \u2018Swiftly\u2019 Reschedule Marijuana And \u2018Continue To Assess\u2019 Full Legalization<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Hundreds Of Women Are Being Prosecuted For Using Marijuana Or Other Drugs While Pregnant Following Roe\u2019s Repeal, Report Shows<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A new report from a reproductive rights organization finds that pregnancy-related prosecutions are at an all-time high in the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court decision that ended the nationwide right to abortion. And by far the most common criminal allegation facing pregnant people is that they used marijuana orContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":78116,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78117,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78115\/revisions\/78117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Allegations](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-01-at-13.26.02-1024x726-1.png\")
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The data shows there were more pregnancy-related prosecutions in the first year after Dobbs than in ANY prior year.<\/p>\n\n
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\nRead More: Hundreds Of Women Are Being Prosecuted For Using Marijuana Or Other Drugs While Pregnant Following Roe\u2019s Repeal, Report Shows<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"