Leading MD Physicians, Drug Treatment Providers, and Public Health Advocates Condemn Prosecution of Pregnant Woman

 

MEDIA ADVISORY:                                         

July 19, 2005             

 

CONTACT:

Beth Ryan, NCADD, 410-625-6482 x. 203

David Rocah, ACLU, 410-889-8555, x.111

BALTIMORE– Key Maryland medical, public health, drug treatment, and public policy groups and experts today called on Talbot County State’s Attorney Scott G. Patterson to cease criminal prosecutions of women who carry their pregnancies to term despite the drug dependencies they suffer. A motion to dismiss the most recent prosecution, filed by the ACLU on behalf of Kelly Lynn Cruz, will be heard by Judge William Horne this Wednesday, July 20 at 9 a.m. at the Talbot County Circuit Court in Easton, Maryland.

 

While not in any way condoning the use of drugs while women are pregnant or caring for children, these concerned organizations and individuals know that it is dangerous and counterproductive to arrest and prosecute pregnant women and new mothers. “Drug dependency is a medical condition – not a crime”, said Dr. Lauren Jansson, Director of Pediatrics at the Center for Addiction and Pregnance at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and a signatory to the letter. “Pregnant women do not experience alcohol and drug dependencies because they want to harm their fetuses or because they do not care about their children.”

 

”Pregnant women who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction need treatment, not jail time,” said Beth Ryan, Executive Director of NCADD Maryland (The Maryland Affiliate of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence). “Threats of criminal prosecutions seriously endanger health of women and their children by discouraging pregnant women from seeking the medical care they need.”

 

As the letter states in part:

 

“Like other medical conditions, drug dependency can be controlled and overcome through medical treatment. Medical knowledge about addiction and dependency treatment demonstrates that patients do not, and cannot, simply stop their drug use as a result of threats of arrest or other negative consequences. In fact, threat-based approaches do not protect children. They have been shown to deter pregnant and parenting women not from using drugs but from seeking prenatal care and drug and alcohol treatment.”

 

On Jan. 13, 2005, Kelly Lynn Cruz gave birth to a son. Blood tests taken at the hospital allegedly showed the presence of cocaine, and Ms. Cruz was charged with child abuse, reckless endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and drug possession. She has pled not guilty on all charges.

 

Noting that the Talbot County State’s Attorney is the only prosecutor in the State of Maryland who is attempting to bring criminal charges in such cases, ACLU Staff Attorney David Rocah called the charges “unprecedented and illegal.” The ACLU is defending Ms. Cruz because prosecuting women for their conduct during pregnancy is both impermissible under state law and unconstitutional.

 

The ACLU’s Motion to Dismiss argues that the prosecutor is attempting to twist existing criminal laws to create a crime that the legislature explicitly refused to create in 1990, when it considered a bill that would have prohibited drug use during pregnancy. The ACLU also points out that with the exception of South Carolina, every single court system in the U.S. that has considered similar prosecutions has found them to be illegal or unconstitutional or both.

 

Apart from the public health consequences, ACLU Legal Director Deborah Jeon noted that “allowing prosecutions of pregnant women would turn local prosecutors and judges into supervising physicians, second guessing every decision a woman makes during pregnancy to determine whether it posed an unreasonable risk to a successful delivery or healthy child.”

 

Ms. Cruz is represented by ACLU cooperating counsel Doane Kiechel, Chris Cobb, and William Brian Edge, in the Washington office of Morrison & Foerster, LLP, Joshua Treem, of Schulman, Treem, Kaminkow, Gilden & Ravenell, P.A., and by ACLU-MD staff lawyers David Rocah and Deborah Jeon.

 

A copy of the full letter and the complete list of signatories follows.

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