Drugs + Pregnancy = Prison in Alabama

Beware of zealots. Today's zealot is Greg Gambril, the district attorney in rural Covington County, Alabama, who is making a name for himself by prosecuting women who use drugs during their pregnancies.

Over an 18-month period, at least eight women have been prosecuted for using drugs while pregnant in this rural jurisdiction of barely 37,000, a tally without any recent parallel that women’s advocates have been able to find.

Gambril's prosections are likely to convince drug using women to avoid seeking medical care during their pregnancies, lest they face imprisonment. Physician-patient privilege assures that won't happen, you think?

Police affidavits make it clear that local doctors are cooperating in these investigations.

Separating women from their newborn children doesn't promote "family values" -- it simply prevents mother and child from bonding during the child's critical formative years. Sensible alternatives would focus on helping women, not sending them to prison.

It isn't at all clear that the prosecutions are consistent with the law upon which Gambril relies: [more...]