Oklahoma Bill to Charge Pregnant Drug Users With Assaulting Fetus Passes Senate Committee

Oklahoma Bill to Charge Pregnant Drug Users With Assaulting Fetus Passes Senate Committee

Pregnant women who use drugs could face criminal assault charges under a measure that was approved with a unanimous 37 to 0 vote in Oklahoma’s Senate Appropriations Committee.

Senate Bill 559 would change the definition of assault to include the illegal use of a drugs by a child’s mother while the mother is pregnant. A woman found guilty would face a misdemeanor charge, a $500 fine and up to 30 days in jail. If the child dies as a result of the drug use, the assault would be considered a felony and the woman would face up to five years in prison.

The measure’s author, State Senator Bryce Marlatt, the measure’s author, says he filed the bill after getting reports about drug use by pregnant women. “It’s an attempt to hopefully curb some of this”, he says.

Marlatt acknowledges the measure has generated “some pushback” from several other senators. “They said it would be a slippery slope and worried that we would start legislating against alcohol and smoke and other things like that,” he says.

Although a 2-year study of nearly 3,000 infants conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that infants which tested positive for cocaine and opiate-based drugs have an increased chance of early-mortality, the study found that those which tested positive for cannabis had a drastically decreased likelihood of early mortality.

– TheJointBlog