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Criminalizing Substance Abuse And Undermining Roe V. Wade: The Tension Between Abortion Doctrine And The Criminalization Of Prenatal Substance Abuse, Myrisha S. Lewis

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion. Although other scholars have criticized prenatal substance abuse prosecutions based on various constitutional and public policy arguments, the tension between prenatal substance abuse prosecutions and the Supreme Court’s abortion doctrine has not been adequately examined. I argue that prosecuting women for the crime of prenatal substance abuse punishes women for not exercising their right to an abortion and could even incentivize some women to obtain abortions in order to avoid criminal prosecution. I also examine the science underlying abortion doctrine, fetal health, and substance abuse which reveals that (1) the right to abort …