Tennessee’s Pregancy Bill Isn’t Just Anti-Mother - It’s Anti-Poor, Anti-Family, Anti-Doctor
There is dangerous legislation sitting on the desk of my governor, Bill Haslam, and if he doesn’t veto it in the next few days, pregnant mothers of color and poor mothers could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of using illegal drugs.
As a black woman and a mother working to support the human rights of other black women, women and girls of color, as well as poor women here in Tennessee, I find SB1391, which passed both chambers of the state legislature here recently, to be another direct assault on our bodies by politicians. But the bill is, on a more basic level, counterproductive to what Tennessee touts as its primary investment: families.
The legislation fails to support the right of low-income mothers - especially from communities of color - to regain custody of their infants and their older children, since low-income women have the fewest resources to navigate court systems or the child welfare bureaucracy. To be clear: the women most impacted by SB1391 have the least access to healthcare in a state which has rejected the Affordable Care Act.
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