Doctors applaud end of Tennessee's fetal assault law

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/doctors-applaud-end-tennessees-fetal-assault-law-193702839.html?nhp=1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brittany Hudson was pregnant, addicted to painkillers and afraid of a Tennessee law that calls for the arrest of mothers of drug-dependent babies. She eventually gave birth without medical help, on the side of a road in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Hudson's dilemma, doctors say, was one of many unintended consequences of the Tennessee Legislature's decision in 2014 to become the first and only state with an explicit criminal offense for these addicted mothers.

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The law was meant to help women get treatment and hold them accountable for child abuse, said its sponsor, Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, a Republican who still believes it had a positive impact. She dismisses the evidence as anecdotal and says there isn't enough data to show women were avoiding treatment. She wonders what will happen now.

"Who is going to be the voice of these babies?" she said.

It's not clear how many women have been arrested, in large part because the law created no new reporting obligations on the part of doctors, police or prosecutors, nor did it fund efforts to study the impact. Neither did the law provide for expanding the programs needed to keep these mothers in treatment and out of jail.