Addicted Pregnancy as a Sex Crime

Abstract

This article examines how controls on addictive pregnancy present a new and dangerous threat to the treatment of women under the law. The author first examines the relationship between the mother and the fetus, concluding that no coherent status attaches to the unborn vis-a-vis its own mother which could justify depriving her of her privacy, autonomy, and the right to make personal family decisions. The article continues with a historical discussion of disparate legal treatment of women throughout history, and the discriminatory effect of state intervention into cases of addicted pregnancy on poor people and people of color. This article concludes with an analysis of the constitutionality of state intervention to control addicted pregnant women.