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ProPublica's Nina Martin reports on American systems and institutions that fail or mistreat people on the basis of their gender or sexuality.

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The biggest threats to life, born and unborn, do not come from mommies but rather from poverty, barriers to health care, persistent racism, environmental hazards, and prosecutions like [the one against Rennie Gibbs]. Every medical group, including the ones that focus on babies, says that [prosecuting pregnant women for using drugs] frighten[s] women away from necessary care to the detriment of children.

Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, on a Mississippi judge’s decision to throw out murder charges against Rennie Gibbs in the death of her stillborn daughter

read my ProPublica piece on the ruling here

In her Guardian piece on Rennie Gibbs —the Mississippi woman I wrote about for ProPublica last week who faces life in prison on murder charges in the death of her stillborn baby —Sadhbh Walshe makes a provocative point: “Imagine if Jackie O got...

In her Guardian piece on Rennie Gibbs —the Mississippi woman I wrote about for ProPublica last week who faces life in prison on murder charges in the death of her stillborn baby —Sadhbh Walshe makes a provocative point: “Imagine if Jackie O got arrested for losing her son after smoking.”

“Like many women of her time, and many women since, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis smoked while she was pregnant. Jackie-O had a history of troubled pregnancies – at least one miscarriage, a stillborn daughter and baby Patrick, who barely survived two days. Those losses caused the Kennedy family enormous pain. Now imagine if an overzealous prosecutor decided that Jackie’s smoking had harmed the babies and indicted the First Lady on murder charges.

Such a scenario might seem far-fetched; indeed, for a woman in the Kennedy demographic, it is. But for poor women – especially poor black women suspected of drug use who fail to carry babies to term – criminalization is already a popular sport. Last year, the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) released a study detailing hundreds of cases of women who have been arrested and imprisoned when they suffered stillbirths or miscarriages because of the anti-feticide laws that are in place in most states.”

Walshe’s entire piece is worth a read; find more of her work here.

(Image courtesy of the Guardian, via Twitter)

Recently I wrote about Rennie Gibbs, a Mississippi teenager who gave birth to a stillbirth daughter in 2006 and was charged with “depraved heart murder” because the baby had traces of a cocaine byproduct in her blood. These two charts show why...Recently I wrote about Rennie Gibbs, a Mississippi teenager who gave birth to a stillbirth daughter in 2006 and was charged with “depraved heart murder” because the baby had traces of a cocaine byproduct in her blood. These two charts show why...

Recently I wrote about Rennie Gibbs, a Mississippi teenager who gave birth to a stillbirth daughter in 2006 and was charged with “depraved heart murder” because the baby had traces of a cocaine byproduct in her blood. These two charts show why advocates in the state find the case so “tremendously, tremendously frightening,” in the words of the Children Defense Fund’s southern regional director, Oleta Fitzgerald. 

Mississippi has one of the worst records for maternal and infant health in the U.S., as well as some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Many of the factors that have been linked to prenatal and infant mortality — poverty, poor nutrition, lack of access to healthcare, pollution, stress — are rampant there. 

The concern is that if Gibbs case goes forward, the precedent could be used to criminally punish Mississippi girls and women for everything from miscarriage to abortion — scary in a place that has so much prenatal mortality for very complex reasons. Another worry:  African Americans, who suffer twice as many stillbirths as whites, could be affected the most.

Read my ProPublica story on the case here.

 (Charts via Mississippi State Department of Health)

REQUIRED READING: Prosecuting Pregnant Women

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Today I wrote about Rennie Gibbs, charged at age 16 with murdering her stillborn baby in Mississippi, and cited the groundbreaking work of Lynn Paltrow and the New York–based National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Here are some highlights from the group’s recent report documenting hundreds of arrests, detentions, and prosecutions for alleged fetal harm around the U.S. since 1973:

  • African American women were found to be significantly more likely to be arrested, reported to state authorities by hospital staff, and subjected to felony charges.
  • In nearly one in five cases, not adhering strictly to medical advice was cited as a factor in justifying the arrest, detention, or forced medical interventions.
  • In 77% of the cases, the father or the woman’s male partner was not even mentioned in any case document.

Read my full ProPublica story about the Rennie Gibbs case here.

The full NAPW report is Paltrow & Flavin, “Arrests of and forced interventions on pregnant women in the United States (1973-2005): The implications for women’s legal status and public health” (Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 2013).