In Some States, Fetuses Are Deemed More Important Than Women

[Hazumu]

By Jeanne Flavin, NYU Press. Posted January 31, 2009.

These cases also serve a larger political purpose by distracting attention from significant social problems such as our lack of universal health care, the dearth of policies to support pregnant and parenting women, an absence of social supports for children, and the overall failure of the drug war. Instead, we focus our attention on "bad" pregnant women who are poor and who use drugs. We expect them to provide their fetuses with the health care and safety that they themselves have not been guaranteed.