Disease or Demon? –

NOV. 17, 2019 – ut pregnant drug users have drawn a different response in many places. More than two dozen states have laws that treat drug use during pregnancy as child abuse, at least for the purposes of terminating parental rights. Although California is not one of those states, its penal code specifically defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human being — or a fetus. Decades ago, legislators added “fetus” to the murder statutes as a way to punish people who injured a pregnant woman’s fetus — for instance, in a case of domestic violence. It was not, according to legal experts, intended to be used against pregnant women themselves. Nevertheless, charges of murder have been brought over the years against women whose babies were stillborn and addicted. It’s rare, yet not unknown. There is one woman — also from Hanford — who pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter after a stillbirth blamed on her drug use; she’s serving an 11-year sentence in state prison. We don’t know what will happen in Becker’s case, but the mere fact that she got charged with murder is troubling.

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