------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 14, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- AFTER LECTURE ON "FETAL RIGHTS": S. CAROLINA JAILS POOR BLACK WOMEN FOR "RISKY BEHAVIOR" By Kathy Durkin Regina McKnight, a 24-year-old African American, was sentenced on May 16 to 12 years in prison. The South Carolina jury that found her guilty of "homicide by child abuse" had deliberated for only 15 minutes. Her crime was that she had given birth to a stillborn child in 1999. McKnight suffered from substance use. She also faced homelessness, domestic abuse, and being developmentally disabled, but no government agency had ever helped her. She needed but was never offered counseling, job training and drug treatment. The only action government officials took was punitive. McKnight is the first person in U.S. history to be convicted of homicide for using drugs while pregnant. She faces the longest term ever given a woman for "harming a fetus through drug use." During her trial, medical experts for the defense testified they did not think that drug use was responsible for the infant's death. Yet McKnight was prosecuted under a South Carolina statute-- the only one in the country--that maintains that "a fetus is a person" and mandates that pregnant women who show any behavior that could pose a risk to a fetus be prosecuted for child abuse. POOR WOMEN VICTIMIZED BY 'FETAL RIGHTS' CAMPAIGN This law is part of a "fetal rights" campaign being promoted by right-wing forces nationwide to erode women's reproductive rights. In South Carolina it has been used primarily as a weapon against young, poor and African American women, whom racist prosecutors see as easiest to convict. South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon is a fervent anti-choice proponent and the Republican candidate for governor. He designed "fetal rights" laws that would criminalize pregnant women for their behavior. "McKnight was sentenced because she is poor, African American, and having children," states Wyndi Anderson, director of the South Carolina Advocates for Pregnant Women. Anderson says, "Today, South Carolina is the only state that treats pregnant women with drug problems as child abusers, and sends them to jail rather than to treatment. This uniquely punitive state policy was first introduced and applied to African American women who were taken out of their hospital beds in chains and shackles. "The policy's greatest advocate is Charlie Condon, South Carolina's current Attorney General, who also staunchly defends the state's policy of flying the Confederate flag. We believe that it is no coincidence that the only state that continues to fly the Confederate flag is also the only state that jails African American women who continue their pregnancies despite drug problems." The state's vindictive, racist policy goes back several years. BEGAN A DECADE AGO In the early 1990s, prosecutors began to zealously arrest African American women who went to public hospitals for health care after the state gave new meanings to the "child neglect" laws, mandating that it was now a criminal offense for a woman to fail "to provide proper medical care for her unborn child." In 1992, Cornelia Whitner, a young pregnant African American woman, was arrested and charged with child abuse and neglect. She was never offered counseling or treatment instead of prison for substance abuse. At that time there were no residential drug treatment programs in the state for pregnant women. Although Whitner requested such medical treatment from the court, it was denied. The judge said, "I think I'll just let her go to jail," and sentenced her to eight years in prison. Whitner's son was born healthy, but she was jailed nevertheless. She is still incarcerated. In 1997, South Carolina officials used Whitner's case to codify existing "fetal rights" policies. The State Supreme Court decided in Whitner v. South Carolina that a viable fetus is a "person" under the Children's Code and that child neglect laws could reach women whose behavior might endanger the fetus. These laws signaled an escalation of the state's war on poor, pregnant women. IMPRISONED FOR 'RISKY BEHAVIOR' South Carolina became the first and only state where pregnant women could be imprisoned for any behavior deemed as risky to the fetus. This could encompass smoking, drinking, diet and more; it was left open to interpretation. When this ruling became law, Melissa Crawley, an African American woman who was drug-free and rearing three children at home, was re-imprisoned on a five-year sentence. Although 17 states have passed laws enabling the state to remove children of pregnant women who test positive for drugs, South Carolina is the only state to extend criminal child-abuse laws to cover fetuses, mandating that drug-using pregnant women can be prosecuted and sent to jail for as long as 10 years. Many women, mainly poor and nearly all African American, have been arrested, with no drug treatment. The law actually dissuades pregnant women from seeking prenatal care or drug treatment because they are afraid of being arrested and jailed. Those who seek help to curtail substance use are turned over to the criminal justice system. For years, pregnant women were not admitted to drug treatment programs. Today, South Carolina spends very little money on drug treatment for women; there is always a shortage of facilities for those who are pregnant. Budget and healthcare funding cutbacks have resulted in fewer facilities; often pregnant women are excluded or are required to give up custody of their children to be treated. Those suffering from domestic abuse find many battered women's shelters don't accept women with drug problems. Often, they can't obtain prenatal care for fear of losing custody of their children. The welfare reform act signed into law by President Bill Clinton is now pushing poor women over the edge. DRAGGED IN CHAINS FROM THEIR HOSPITAL BEDS In October 1989, the Medical University Hospital in South Carolina (MUSC), the only hospital in Charleston to treat low-income, Medicaid and mostly African-American patients, began to subject pregnant women to nonconsensual drug tests in collusion with police and prosecutors. Racist staff turned women over to the police and held them against their will. All but one of the 30 women arrested under this five-year policy were African American; many were taken to jail in chains and shackles straight from hospital beds, some still pregnant, others having just given birth. National pressure and threats of a federal investigation stopped this policy, but then-Solicitor General Charlie Condon and the hospital defended their methods in the federal courts against a lawsuit brought by 10 women arrested at MUSC. In Ferguson vs. the City of Charleston, 70 medical, public health and civil rights organizations filed amicus briefs in their behalf to the U.S. Supreme Court. In March of this year the women won their lawsuit. The state of South Carolina spent millions of dollars defending this racist and inhumane policy instead of funding needed drug treatment programs. Blaming poor women also lets the government off the hook for the lack of social programs. Officials say nothing about poverty or cutbacks in health care or services being harmful to pregnant women and their children. South Carolina ranks among the worst states in infant mortality, low birth-weight babies, prenatal care, funds for education and number of children in poverty. Letters to demand Regina McKnight be freed and all charges against her be dropped can be sent to Gov. Jim Hodges, P.O. Box 11829, Columbia, SC 29211 or at [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Thanks to the South Carolina Advocates for Pregnant Women for much of the information in this article.] - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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