Wisconsin Jails Pregnant Woman and Gives Her Fetus - but Not Her - a Lawyer
Beltran’s attorneys argued that the pregnant woman was being penalized for providing honest information to a health care provider without knowing that it could be used against her in court.
At her initial hearing, her attorneys say, the judge told Belran that she would not have an attorney present but one had been appointed to represent her fetus.
Under a 1998 Wisconsin law, known as the “cocaine mom” act, the courts can forcibly confine pregnant women who use illegal drugs or alcohol “to a severe degree” and who refuses to accept treatment.
Beltran’s attorneys says she wasn’t using any controlled substances when she was arrested and filed the first federal challenge to the law in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee.
The suit argues that the law is vague and lacking in medical terminology, which attorneys argue leave too much room for interpretation.
Attorneys also argued that Beltran’s due process, privacy and physical liberty were violated by her arrest.
Under such laws, argued Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women and one of Beltran’s attorneys, “the woman loses pretty much every constitutional right we associate with personhood.”
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