Screening For Alcohol And Drug Use For Prenatal Care

â€Å"Since 1985 about 250 Women in 30 states have been criminally prosecuted in relation to drug abuse while pregnant.† (Coles, par 16) Since there isn’t a law in place for a woman being convicted for drinking or smoking while pregnant, they dig a little deeper and get more technical. Charges for unlawful child neglect, delivering drugs to a minor, homicide by child abuse and even manslaughter have been given to mothers who abuse drugs or alcohol while pregnant. Some even believe in terminating the woman’s parental rights. Whether or not the child shows signs before birth, they have started to test newborns for drugs and prosecute from there. (NAPW, par 33-35) â€Å"Screening for alcohol and drug use in prenatal care is widely promoted in the United States as a public health strategy for reducing alcohol and drug use during pregnancy.† (Roberts, par 1) I think that they’re promoting drug and alcohol testing in prenatal care to help the mother get help, not punish her for doing them. Reading through a few articles on prenatal testing, I realized that most women see it as the doctor is going to turn over her information to the enforcements, which is not the case. In the fear of getting in trouble, mothers will avoid prenatal care all together, which is a problem in itself. Trying to find a happy medium where we can try to escape the statistics of children having side effects due to drugs or alcohol, might have to start at the source -- the seller. â€Å"Two restaurant workers have beenShow MoreRelatedToday, â€Å"The Number Of Girls And Women Doing Time Is Utterly900 Words   |  4 Pagesoften unplanned and high-risk and are compromised by a lack of prenatal care, poor nutrition, domestic violence, mental illness, and drug and alcohol abuse. 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