Substance Abuse During Pregnancy and the Threat of Jail
by Amy R. Sobie & David C. Reardon, Ph.D.
Over the last several years, national media reports on the problem of “crack babies” — babies born with an addiction to drugs that were used by their mothers during pregnancy — have sparked an interest in laws that would allow judges to jail pregnant drug addicts to prevent them from continuing to abuse drugs that could harm their unborn child.
Recently, legislators in two states have passed such bills, often known as fetal protection laws. Since June, women in South Dakota who abuse drugs or alcohol during pregnancy now face involuntary detention at treatment facilities at almost any time throughout their pregnancies. And in Wisconsin, a new law allows juvenile court judges to act on behalf of unborn children who have been exposed to drugs by confining their mothers to a treatment facility, doctor’s office, hospital, or relative’s home.
In all, twelve states–Alaska, California, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin–introduced fetal protection bills this year. The numbers are up from 1997, when only seven bills–all of which failed to pass–were introduced.
On the surface, these laws are intended to protect unborn children from the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol. We must worry, however, that in the absence of any restrictions on abortion, such laws may force drug addicts to choose between experiencing painful withdrawal symptoms or having an unwanted abortion. Since “crack babies” are often portrayed by the media as a burden on society, it is not inconceivable that some judges and social workers may use these new laws to push women toward abortion.
Another concern is that treatment programs that ignore post-abortion syndrome will simply be ineffective. As this article will show, there is a strong association between a history of abortion and subsequent substance abuse during pregnancy. Many, if not most, of these drug addicted women are post-abortive. Many are abusing drugs in an effort to repress their emotional pain, while at the same time they are becoming pregnant to “replace” the babies they lost to abortion.
The False Refuge of Drugs
Drug abuse is an “escape” from emotional reality. Nancyjo Mann, a post-aborted woman and founder of Women Exploited by Abortion, describes how she used drugs to escape the pain and stress caused by her abortion in this way:
“The natural center of this destructive, escapist world in which I lived, of course, was drugs . . . Drugs were my refuge, my comfort, my slow fuse to self-obliteration. When I was stoned, I didn’t have to think. If I couldn’t think, I couldn’t feel, and if I couldn’t feel, that was almost as good as being dead. It was better than facing myself.”(1)
A later pregnancy may cause an even greater increase in post-abortion stress. Studies have found that women with a history of abortion have higher levels of depression and anxiety during a subsequent pregnancy than any other group of women, including women with previous miscarriages. Researchers concluded that their pregnancies reawakened unresolved feelings of guilt, grief, and loss that led these women to fear the outcome of their pregnancies.(2)
A strong association between abortion and drug abuse has been reported in several studies:
- A study of 697 pregnant inner-city women at Boston City Hospital found that women with a history of abortion were much more likely to use cocaine during subsequent pregnancies. Researchers found that the risk of cocaine use increased even more for women with a history of multiple abortion. They also found that cocaine users were more likely to use alcohol or other drugs during pregnancy: 88 percent of pregnant cocaine users smoked, 80 percent consumed alcohol, 72 percent smoked marijuana, 14 percent used opiates and 9 percent used other illicit drugs.(3)
- A 1987 study of 110 drug-exposed infants at UCSD Medical Center in San Diego found that women using drugs were more likely than nonusers to have a history of one or more induced abortions. Women who used cocaine and/or methamphetamine reported an average of 1.7 abortions compared with 1.2 abortions for nonusers. Women who used heroin or methadone averaged 2.4 abortions to 1.2 abortions for nonusers.(4)
- A study of 137 pregnant drug users enrolled for prenatal care at one hospital found that women using cocaine or opiates reported an average of 1.5 abortions, compared to 0.6 abortions among the non-drug using control group.(5)
Looking for Courage in a Bottle
Researchers in California studied smoking and drinking practices of more than 12,000 pregnant women over a two-year period. Fifty-one percent of all the women in the study said they drank during pregnancy. Yet among women who had two or more previous abortions, nearly all of them–98.5 percent–reported that they drank throughout the entire nine months of a subsequent pregnancy that they intended to carry to term.(6)
Another study of 1,008 pregnant women found that women with a history of abortion had “higher and more severe levels of alcohol consumption” than women who had a history of stillbirth or miscarriage, or who had given birth to a child with a physical disability. Although 71 percent of the women reduced their drinking during pregnancy, 28 percent remained unchanged. And while a significant number of women reported increased emotional stress during the pregnancy, the fact that the group with a history of abortion had the highest level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy indicates that these women had the most severe problems.(7)
An Elliot Institute study of 252 aborted women found that nearly one-third stated that they began using alcohol more heavily after their abortions, while 40 percent said they began or increased their use of drugs. Of these women, 15 percent described themselves as alcoholic, and 11 percent reported that they became drug addicts.(8)
Nearly all of these studies report that the risk of substance abuse increases with each subsequent abortion. This is especially significant when one considers that nearly half of all aborted women are repeat aborters. This additive effect may be due to “higher levels of anxiety, mood disorders and depression [that] have been noted in women repeating abortion compared with those who have had only one abortion.”(9)
The Many Levels of Harm
The U.S. Surgeon General’s Office warns that even small amounts of alcohol consumption during pregnancy can be harmful to the unborn child. “Heavy” drinking (usually considered to be one ounce of pure alcohol per day, or the equivalent of two 12-ounce beers, two four-ounce glasses of wine, or two cocktails) during pregnancy has been linked to problems like premature birth, still birth, miscarriage, low birth weight, and fetal malformations.(10)
Heavy drinkers also risk giving birth to a child with fetal alcohol syndrome, which can lead to mental retardation, facial abnormalities, central nervous system disorders and poor growth.(11) Even women who consume an ounce of absolute alcohol only twice a week during pregnancy significantly increase their risk of miscarrying.(12)
Women who drink during pregnancy are also more likely to jeopardize their pregnancy by engaging in risky behavior or failing to seek adequate prenatal care, since alcohol can “blunt” the woman’s biological urge to do what’s best for her child.(13) And a study of teen mothers found that those who used drugs were nearly three times more likely to report being threatened, abused, or involved in fights during their pregnancy than non-users.(14)
Heavy drinkers are also more likely to suffer from memory loss or depression(15) or to engage in violent behavior that can put them at risk for injury and even death.(16) One national survey found that 17 percent of all female drinkers reported that they had driven a car while drunk or high at least once in the previous year, while 45 percent of women considered “heavy” drinkers had driven while intoxicated.(17)
Cocaine, which is commonly used by post-aborted women who abuse drugs, can cause seizures, convulsions, heart attacks, nausea, vomiting, respiratory problems, delirium, paranoid or violent behavior, and even death. If used during pregnancy, it can lead to pregnancy complications, miscarriages, and brain damage or perinatal death among unborn children.(18)
Large amounts of alcohol also inhibit the immune system, leaving heavy drinkers susceptible to cholera, tuberculosis and other lung problems.(19)And because drugs, alcohol, and a history of abortion are all linked to promiscuous sex, each of these factors increases the risk of future pregnancies, repeat abortions, sexually-transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS.
The past several years have seen the spread of HIV/AIDS among women, teenagers, crack smokers, and heavy drinkers. A 1987 study in New York and New Jersey found that HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death among black women age 15-44. Among the death certificates with any mention of HIV or AIDS, 27 percent also included drug abuse as a contributing factor.(20)
Conclusion
Clearly, substance abuse during pregnancy poses a grave risk to the health of both women and their unborn children. It is also clear that a large part of this problem may be directly attributed to the emotional injuries caused by abortion.
Women who abuse drugs or alcohol during pregnancy do need drug rehabilitation programs, but many will also need post-abortion counseling. For many women, this is the only way to address the core issue underlying their substance abuse.
The political issue of “crack babies” is complicated by a mix of honest concerns and noble intentions on the one hand, and on the other hand, deeply ingrained racial and economic prejudices and thinly disguised social engineering, dominated by the “abort, don’t support” philosophy.
In a society where abortion was illegal, mandatory treatment for pregnant substance abusers would clearly be a reasonable way to help women and their children. But in a society where abortion is not only legal but is actively encouraged by government welfare workers, these new laws may be just another weapon to help social engineers push poor and “socially unfit” women toward abortion.
In our opinion, forced treatment laws to reduce substance abuse during pregnancy simply can’t succeed in the present social environment. Abortion is the fuel that feeds the fire. Without aggressively promoting post-abortion healing programs, it will be impossible to contain, much less extinguish, this blaze.
NOTES
1. Reardon, Aborted Women, Silent No More (Loyola University Press: Chicago, 1986), xix.
2. Kumar, R., & Robson, K., “Previous Induced Abortion and Anti-Natal Depression in Primiparie, Psychological Medicine, 8:711-715 (1978).
3. Frank, D., et. al., “Cocaine Use During Pregnancy Prevalence and Correlates,” Pediatrics 82(6):888 (Dec. 1988).
4. Oro, A., & Dixon, S., “Perinatal Cocaine and Methamphetamine Exposure Maternal and Neonatal Correlates,” Journal of Pediatrics 111:571-587 (1987).
5. “Childbirth as Protective of the Health of Women in Contrast to Induced Abortion Part II: Smoking, Alcohol, and Drug Use,” Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change Research Bulletin 12(3):3 (March/April 1998).
6. Kuzma & Kissinger, “Patterns of Alcohol and Cigarette Use in Pregnancy,” Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Terotology (3:211-221 (1981).
7. Plant, M., Women, Drinking and Pregnancy (London: Tavistock Publishing, 1985).
8. Reardon, D., Aborted Women: Silent No More (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books, 1987) 23.
9. Franco, K., et. al., “Psychological Profile of Dyshoric Women Post-Abortion,” Journal of American Medical Women’s Association 44(4):113 (July/Aug. 1989).
10. Kline, J., et. al., “Drinking During Pregnancy and Spontaneous Abortion,” The Lancet July 26, 1980, p. 173-176.
11. “Surgeon General’s Advisory on Alcohol and Pregnancy,” FDA Bulletin Vol. 11, No. 2, (1981).
12. “Surgeon General’s Advisory on Alcohol and Pregnancy,” op. cit.
13. “Childbirth as Protective of the Health of Women in Contrast to Induced Abortion Part II: Smoking, Alcohol, and Drug Use,” Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change Research Bulletin 12(3):6 (March/April 1998).
14. Amaro, et. al., “Drug Use Among Adolescent Mothers: Profile of Risk,” Pediatrics 84(1):144 (July 1989).
15. Klassen, A., & Wilsnak, S., “Sexual Experience and Drinking Among Women in a U.S. National Survey,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 15(5):363 (1986).
16. Wilsnack, R., et. al., “Women’s Drinking and Drinking Problems: Patterns from a 1981 National Survey,” American Journal of Public Health 74:1231-1238 (1984).
18. “Special Report – Medical Complications of Cocaine Abuse,” The New England Journal of Medicine 315(23):315, 1495-1500 (Dec. 4, 1986).
19. MacGregor, J., “Alcohol and Immune Defense,” Journal of the American Medical Association 256:1474-1479 (1986); Adams, “Infections in the Alcoholic,” Medical Clinic North America 68:179-200 (1984); and “Alcoholism, Infection, and Altered Host Defenses,” Journal of Chronic Diseases 29:35-49 (1976).
20. Chu et. al., “Impact of the HIV Epidemic of Mortality in Women of Reproductive Age,” JAMA 264(2):225 (July 11, 1990).
