Drug use and pregnancy are sensitive subjects that are often addressed without the opportunity to hear from experts. Please view our webinar featuring medical experts who discuss evidence-based research on drug use, addiction, and pregnancy. In addition, local legal and community advocates offer insight into the current responses to drug use and pregnancy in the Central Valley and approaches that will advance maternal, fetal, and child health.
In this virtual panel, medical, community, and legal advocacy experts discuss the effects of prenatal substance exposure on pregnancy outcomes and how the Central Valley community can best respond to drug use during pregnancy.
This educational event included a discussion about Chelsea Becker's case in Hanford, CA.
On November 5, 2019, Chelsea Becker was arrested and charged with murder under California Penal Code §187. Ms. Becker had experienced a stillbirth that the prosecutor claims, without scientific basis, was caused by her methamphetamine use during pregnancy. Ms. Becker remains incarcerated pending trial, on $2,000,000 bail that she cannot afford.
Ms. Becker's case raises important medical, scientific, and community health questions:
What are the causes of stillbirth?
What are the effects of methamphetamines and other substances on a pregnancy?
To what extent can any individual woman control her pregnancy outcome?
What is addiction, and does it impact pregnant women differently?
How should we as a community respond to people who use drugs during their pregnancy?
Want resources that can help pregnant women and families?
-- Birth Rights: A free resource for everyday people to defend human rights during labor and birth
(By Pregnancy Justice and
Birth Rights Bar Association)
-- Pregnancy & Substance Use - A Harm Reduction Toolkit (By National Harm Reduction Coalition)
-- “Whatever they do, I’m her comfort, I’m her protector: How the foster system has become ground zero for the US drug war.”: A new report on the so called "child welfare" and foster system and the drug war.( By Movement for Family Power, the Drug Policy Alliance and NYU Family Defense Clinic)