Rights of Pregnant Women
Special restrictions on pregnant women create a dangerous precedent for wide-ranging government intrusion into the lives of all women. Women, due to their ability to become pregnant, have faced inappropriate treatment by judges and prison officials. Courts and prisons have imposed harsher sentences and have interfered with women's reproductive choices. Pregnant women have been forced to undergo unwanted cesareans; ordered to have their cervixes sewn up to prevent miscarriage; incarcerated for consuming alcohol. There is a racist element in many of these cases. Although drug use crosses all racial and class lines, poor women of color have overwhelmingly been the ones targeted and arrested for using drugs while pregnant. Punitive measures do not promote healthy childbearing; instead, they deter women from seeking necessary treatment and prenatal care. "Fetal protection laws" could create a cage of restrictive rules on women fashioned to "protect," the fetus, turning back the clock to the days women — but not men — were forbidden from working in industrial settings because their employers were afraid to incur liability for harm to their fertility. The classification of a fetus as individual separate from the woman has a potential to create barriers to health care for pregnant women with illnesses. For instance, would a pregnant woman with cancer be able to access potentially life-saving radiation treatment or chemotherapy, since such treatment could harm the pregnancy?
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