Pregnancy, Substance Abuse and Reproductive Rights

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In the mid-1980’s, during Regan’s national War on Drugs, crack cocaine emerged in the inner-cities, adding a new dimension to the issue of illicit drug use in the United States. During this time period, there was a growing interest in the complexities of drug and alcohol use by pregnant women. By the end of the decade, these issues merged together which resulted in a new national social problem to eliminate: to save innocent ‘crack babies’ from their dangerous and irresponsible ‘crack moms’. In addition to providing an in depth case study on the Interagency Policy in Charleston SC, this book examines the discourse surrounding the social construction of ‘crack babies’ and ‘crack moms’ and illustrates how these stereotypes aided in providing justification for the practice of incarcerating pregnant drug addicts as well as the creation of fetal rights legislation in South Carolina. This study illustrates the complexities of the impact race, class, gender and cultural ideologies had on shaping these punitive responses which eventually were found to violate constitutional rights.