Women have taken a huge step in the fight for their rights. They have advanced equality in the society greatly. The times they had no rights are long gone. Considering the current world, they have acquired equal rights to their male counterparts. However, it has turned out that the favors they received from the society are still present including in courtroom judgments. For instance, the judgment for a crime committed by a woman is different for the judgment made for the same crime if committed by a man (Spohn, 2015). Historically, there were no complains over the issue because women were not involved in big crimes. However, gender was not the only form of discrimination in making judgement. The black men were in the same minority class with women. Society started blaming gender and race until proper prosecution was hard to be applied where both were involved (McNamara, & Burns, 2009). This led Randall Kennedy in his book Race, Crime and the Law argue that it is hard to judge who a given disparity is harmful to, for prosecution of pregnant woman using illicit drug which is harmful to their unborn baby.
Prosecution of pregnant women taking illicit drugs was a burden to blacks then. When a law is passed, it should consider all factor in life. Surely the most number of women affected were black women and thus they overlooked it as part of racial discrimination. Notably, whites used powder cocaine which was hard to notice and arrest a pregnant woman with. On the other hand, blacks were using cheap cracks which could be traced faster due to smoke making many of them get arrested (Mitchell, & Caudy, 2015). Then, many of police officers were white men who hated blacks. Therefore, there was a high possibility that the law could be over exercised on black women than whites.
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However, on the side of health, it was right for all pregnant women using illicit substances to be prosecuted. It was an advantage to a pregnant woman and the child if the mother was arrested and kept under no drug for the period. Prosecution and arrest could help the mother to evade complications associated with illicit drugs including miscarriages in early pregnancy. Also, without consideration of which side of the race, both cocaine and crack have an effect on the placenta and it gets into the baby's body which can be a problem for the rest of the baby's life. It can also cause placental abruption which can lead to severe bleeding, premature birth or fetal death. The mother also risks complications during birth which can lead to loss of life for both child and the mother. Research by Congress of gynecology of America also shows that use of cocaine or crack can have a severe effect on the growth of the baby making the head to be small and acquire retarded growth for life. When a mother takes it frequently during the pregnancy period, it gets to the baby, and the baby is also born with the substance in the system and can suffer withdrawal symptoms (Hui, Angelotta, & Fisher, 2017). In conclusion therefore, considering the side effects associated with the consumption of illicit drugs during pregnancy and the question posed by Kennedy, the prosecution of pregnant mothers taking illicit drugs was on the benefit of both the mother and the unborn baby regardless of the race.
References
Hui, K., Angelotta, C., & Fisher, C. E. (2017). Criminalizing substance use in pregnancy: misplaced priorities. Addiction, 112(7), 1123-1125.
McNamara, R. H., & Burns, R. G. (2009). Multiculturalism in the criminal justice system. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Mitchell, O., & Caudy, M. S. (2015). Examining racial disparities in drug arrests. Justice Quarterly, 32(2), 288-313.
Spohn, C. (2015). Race, crime, and punishment in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Crime and Justice, 44(1), 49-97.
