You need to check out State Rep. Patricia Todd’s first post of the new session at Kathy’s site. I think the world of Rep. Todd and am glad to see she has so many important priorities she wants to work toward this legislative session.
The way this new law is being applied, especially in Southeast Alabama, is outrageous:
Gregory L. Gambril, prosecuting attorney for Covington County, said his office has charged about 10 new mothers with chemical endangerment of a child since the law was passed. Two of the cases involved deaths of newborns caused by methamphetamine abuse, he said.
Gambril said children need protection, and the new law is there to do that.
“The unborn children are not making the choice,” he said. “It’s the mothers who are making the choice to do it to them.”
But he acknowledged the law has some problems and needs clarification. It was originally proposed to prosecute parents who exposed children to toxins associated with methamphetamine production, and has no mention of pregnant women or their babies.
“It’s obviously a close call under the law,” Gambril said. “We would like the matter cleared up with a statute.”
Gambril said his prosecutors are focusing on pregnant women who are addicted to methamphetamine, but other drug exposures are being decided case by case. It’s all being done properly, he said.
It is unfathomable to me that a prosecutor would find it appropriate to take a law designed to stop adults from exposing their children to a toxic environment where meth is being produced and extend it to parents who are addicted and get pregnant. Once again, some folks are trying to take a public health situation and turn it into a criminal one.
The law wasn’t written to allow this, and the one thing I agree with Mr. Gambril on is that there needs to be a statute passed to expressly exclude pregnant women from this law.
New Alabama law that puts some new mothers in jail, causing controversy- al.com
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