In the United States, pregnant women have come under a nearly microscopic public ‘lens’ regarding their behavior during pregnancy. Pregnant women are increasingly cast as a form of ‘public property’ with women warned against hundreds of risks, from eating deli meats, Camembert cheese and alfalfa sprouts to the ubiquitous stern warnings about smoking and alcohol use. In its most extreme form, the policing of pregnancy has led to the criminal prosecution of women for in utero ‘child neglect, abuse or endangerment’, delivering drugs to a ‘minor’ or even, as in one case, convicted of homicide for a stillbirth that the court claimed was the result of drug use during pregnancy (with a prison sentence of 12 years).

1. Policing Pregnancy Cynthia R. Daniels Professor and Chair Political Science Department Rutgers University New Brunswick, N.J. [email_address]

9. Native American Babies

10. Mandatory Warning Signs

11. Number of States

12. Early pregnancy warnings…Could you be pregnant? Early pregnancy warnings

16. Few images of fathers…

18. Smoking and Pregnancy

23. Pregnancy and Alcohol Reporting

24. Pregnancy and Alcohol Reporting

25. Authorizing Civil Commitment

26. Civil Commitment

27. Limitations on Criminal Prosecution

29. Regina McKnight (May, 2008) Released on appeal after serving 5 years in prison Based on failure to prove causation between drug use and stillbirth; no autopsy

37. Seveso, Italy (1976)