Profile picture
Jessica Mason Pieklo @Hegemommy
, 10 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
2018 was a helluva year but it did end on a few high notes, like this decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that says using drugs while pregnant is not child abuse. @AngryBlackLady has the background here #TeamLegal

rewire.news/article/2018/0…
Here's a copy of the decision since TeamLegal likes to keep it servicey too

pacourts.us/assets/opinion…
A few things to note from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision.

First-- two justices dissented so 😐

Second, the state had argued that one reason it should charge pregnant people with child abuse is because of the possibility they become pregnant again
According to the state's logic, charging a pregnant person with child abuse now was protecting future children they may possibly have, sometime maybe in the future.

Or, you know, maybe not.
Thankfully the Court did away with that nonsense

"Labeling a woman as a perpetrator of child abuse does not prevent her from becoming pregnant or provide any protection for a later conceived child while in utero," the court noted.
"It also does not ensure that the same woman will not use illegal drugs if she does again become pregnant," said the court.

But it does ensure that patient has a difficult time assimilating into the workforce and participate in the lives of the children they *DO* have
The state had offered no evidence to support these claims, because there is none to offer. These are *punitive* policies targeting patients not *protective* ones
These kinds of policies and arguments are what we call "creeping fetal personhood" and place pregnant patients at odds with their pregnancy.

They also depend on a belief that the state is *owed* a healthy baby with each pregnancy
Over at @Rewire_News we cover the fetal personhood movement relentlessly. And recently the @nytopinion had this really great deep dive into the danger fetal personhood poses to pregnant people. Read every word of it.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Meanwhile 2019 is all of 2 days old and already South Carolina and Texas has proposed fetal personhood measures teed up in their legislatures.

in 2018 SEVENTEEN states considered some kind of fetal personhood measure. @BrieShea has you covered here

rewire.news/article/2018/1…
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Jessica Mason Pieklo
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!