State Repression

“They Really Wanted to See My Baby Get Taken Away,”

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— Marisa Carroll, features editor, New York

Many New Yorkers look at the news of abortion bans in other states with horror but assure themselves that nothing like that could happen here. But criminalizing pregnancy isn’t limited to abortion bans. Today, New York’s Irin Carmon breaks the story of a woman who says her rights were violated right here in Brooklyn. She is suing her hospital for secretly drug testing her during childbirth. As a result of what she calls discriminatory treatment, she spent some of the crucial first moments with her newborn on a call with Child Protective Services and was then entangled in a monthslong process to prove she was a fit mother. It’s an infuriating story — not only is marijuana legal in New York, but official guidance explicitly states that “a positive toxicology result for a parent or a newborn, by itself, does not constitute reasonable suspicion of child abuse or maltreatment” — and a revealing one about the ways women are treated as incubators rather than people.
‘They Really Wanted to See My Baby Get Taken Away’ A woman is suing a Brooklyn hospital for secretly drug testing her during labor.
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Getty Images
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Categories: State Repression

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