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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It looks like we are going ahead with the detainment of a pregnant woman in Wisconsin.
As I understand the injuction, it will not grant courts the power to force pregnant women to give birth. It is possible instead that it is part of a broader "slippery slope" which will lead to that conclusion.
This is just business as usual in the so-called 'war on drugs.' Still, it's too bad that drug users have to risk losing their civil rights.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-cocaine-idUSKBN19S2YX
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday let Wisconsin officials continue to enforce a law allowing them to detain pregnant women suspected of abusing drugs or alcohol while the state appeals a lower court ruling that struck down the law.
In its brief order, the Supreme Court did not give any reasons for lifting an injunction against the so-called "cocaine mom" law imposed last April by a federal judge in Madison, Wisconsin, who said it was unconstitutionally vague.
As I understand the injuction, it will not grant courts the power to force pregnant women to give birth. It is possible instead that it is part of a broader "slippery slope" which will lead to that conclusion.
Wisconsin's Unborn Child Protection Act, enacted in 1998, gives courts power over any expectant mother who "habitually lacks self-control" over drugs or alcohol, placing an unborn child at risk. The law allows officials to hold the pregnant woman in custody if she refuses treatment.
Former Wisconsin resident Tamara Loertscher sued state officials in 2014 after a hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin reported her for testing positive for after methamphetamines and marijuana while she was three months pregnant.
She said she had stopped using the drugs, but a juvenile court judge jailed her for 18 days until she agreed to be assessed by a drug treatment facility.
She submitted to weekly drug testing and gave birth to a healthy baby boy in 2015, according to court papers.
This is just business as usual in the so-called 'war on drugs.' Still, it's too bad that drug users have to risk losing their civil rights.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-cocaine-idUSKBN19S2YX