Someone killing their baby with their drug habit is a bit different than the El Salvador case where an abortion was needed to save the mothers life.
I don't know. Birth control fails and not everyone has a regular monthly cycle. Heck, if you are on the right birth control, you won't have one at all.
You could easily be looking at being 2-3 months into the pregnancy without realizing it, depending on the body changes you experience. You might just think you've been sick. If you aren't expecting to get pregnant and don't have the "normal" symptoms, you are likely to continue doing drugs as you would otherwise.
Heck, if you were addicted and tried to get treatment, you might not find anything better than something non-medical (AA and the lot) even if you need it.
In other words, despite your best effort, it might not be avoided. Add to that the fact that a lot of the studies on "crack babies" have been debunked: Not all drugs actually harm the fetus as much as was advertised, and might not have harmed the baby at all. I'm not an expert, but I have corrected that propaganda in my head.
And I*ll mention: Had she gotten an abortion, she wouldn't have charges.
> Had she gotten an abortion, she wouldn't have charges.
That, to me, is kind of the whole point.
If you decide your dog is old and sick and you take it to the vet to be put down, you've done the right thing.
If you decide your dog is old sick, so you starve him to death, you deserve to go to jail for animal abuse.
(At least for now) we have a way of dealing with unwanted pregnancy. Abusing / neglecting your fetus because you don't want it, but not getting an abortion, is clearly immoral IMO.
Whether drug use constitutes abuse, and whether she deserve jail time for it, are more complicated and nuanced questions.
You're wrong - she didn't "[kill her] baby with [her] drug habit"
1) A 17 week old fetus is not a baby nor is it viable outside of the womb.
2) There's no evidence methamphetamine actually caused the miscarriage. Miscarriage is extremely common (25% of known pregnancies) and it's almost impossible to say exactly why any single miscarriage happens. In this case the fetus also had a genetic anomaly and a placenta abruption.
3) Miscarriages are more common among certain people - for example those who have PCOS, are of advanced maternal age, shift workers, and people with diabetes. If a shift worker with diabetes and PCOS has a miscarriage we don't say she "killed her baby" and criminalize it.
4) 50% of pregnancies are unplanned in the US. It's extremely likely if a drug user or regular drinker has an unplanned pregnancy they accidentally expose a fetus to those substances.
5) This whole thing is absurd because in Oklahoma it's perfectly legal to purposefully abort a 17 week old fetus (for now).
Beyond that, there's hundreds of cases, but you only replied to one. If you don't like that one how about:
>27-year-old African-American woman Marshae Jones was indicted by an Alabama grand jury on manslaughter charges when she lost her 5-month-old fetus after being shot. The person who shot Jones, whom the police claimed was acting in self-defense, was not charged in the shooting. Jones, however, was held responsible for being in a fight while pregnant, and faced up to 20 years in prison.
Or
>In 2016, Katherine Dellis gave birth to a stillborn baby in her home. She went to the doctor to receive necessary medical care afterward, only to be arrested. An autopsy showed the baby had died about 30 to 32 weeks into the pregnancy. She was sentenced to five months in prison for concealing a dead body, despite the fact that the fetus had already died in the womb.
Or
>a woman fell down the stairs, went to a doctor because she was concerned about her baby, and the doctor interpreted her concern as intent to harm her unborn child. The police were called and she had to spend two nights in jail. Fortunately, charges were dropped.
> This whole thing is absurd because in Oklahoma it's perfectly legal to purposefully abort a 17 week old fetus (for now).
A fetus is not a play thing with zero moral consideration. You can put your dog down at the vet given appropriate circumstances. That doesn't give you the right to abuse, neglect, and kill your dog arbitrarily.
Marshae Jones never went to trial, the prosecutors dropped the case.
Katherine Dellis went to jail because she threw the body of her dead child in the garbage bin. It had nothing to do with how the baby died (miscarriage). You can't just chuck dead family members into a dumpster.
It's not that much of a stretch to think women could be convicted for using alcohol or tobacco, or eventually for any reason the right wants.
Anti-abortion laws could also make doctors wary of treating women for miscarriages, lest they be accused of actually inducing abortion [2]. Women could also easily be falsely accused of breaking anti-abortion laws when they have a miscarriage ("you didn't have a miscarriage, you were perfectly healthy!" etc, despite many perfectly healthy women having many miscarriages). This is all but a guarantee, as people are already being denied care due to this issue.
Unfortunately you are incorrect even though I wish you were right.
"Of the 22 states with abortion bans that will instantly take effect if the landmark Supreme Court ruling is overturned, 10 have passed laws that make no exceptions for rape or incest: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas."
Having to carry a rapists child to term would likely cause some level of psychological trauma. Psychological trauma is a valid medical reason for attaining a medical marijuana use case in many states. So I would argue that state level governments have already accepted psychological trauma as a medical need.
It's not hyperbole - an induced abortion ("chemical abortion") is identical, medically, to a spontaneous abortion ("miscarriage"). 25% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. When abortion is a crime then any person experiencing a miscarriage is a suspected criminal. If someone experiencing a miscarriage is unlikable enough, weird enough, or ever expressed any doubts about their pregnancy to anyone else, then a prosecutor can just assume that person must have caused their miscarriage. There's no way to disprove any specific action didn't contribute to a miscarriage.
When you criminalize abortion you criminalize miscarriages. Not every miscarriage, but definitely some.
This actually varies greatly by age, as older women have higher rates of miscarriage due to things like amniotic insufficiency, and genetic abnormalities which also cause predispose towards miscarriage
>an induced abortion ("chemical abortion") is identical, medically, to a spontaneous abortion ("miscarriage")
This is not medically correct, and it sounds like a political talking point.
Many spontaneous abortions fail to implant due to genetic abnormalities, and come out like a period. Minimal pain or impact. Similarly, genetic abnormalities can cause spontaneous abortions that happen early pregnancy in the first trimester, causing the fetus not to grow, and then to abort.
There are several different chemicals used for an induced, chemical abortion such as salt, Prostaglandin, Urea, as well as steroids like mifepristone [1], or Misoprostol[2]
Chemical abortions on the other hand can be much more catastrophic, and involve intense enough contractions to cause permanent damage to the uterus and vagina. As you can see from the safety data sheets, these are non-trivial risks associated with these.
As a pregnancy involves signficant hormone changes, a pre-implantation spontaneous abortion without implantation would not change estrogen levels significantly. A fully implanted pregnancy would change estrogen levels as the breasts increase in size and prepare for milk production. Some studies have shown 90% increases in breast cancer rates post-abortion, while others contend no change.
Despite the link in the article, these appear to be two different women -- referred to as "Elsy" and "Esme" -- one who was sentenced 10 years ago, the other who was sentenced last week.
