When Quitney Armstead discovered she was pregnant whereas locked up in a rural Alabama jail, she made a promise — to God and herself — to remain clear.
She had struggled with dependancy and post-traumatic stress dysfunction for almost a decade, since serving within the Iraq Battle. However when she discovered she was pregnant together with her third little one, in October 2018, she resolved: “I need to be a mama to my youngsters once more.”
Armstead says she did keep clear earlier than delivering a child woman in January 2019. Data present that hospital employees carried out preliminary drug assessments, and Armstead was unfavorable.
Armstead didn’t know that Decatur Morgan Hospital additionally despatched her new child’s meconium — the child’s first bowel motion — to the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic for extra superior testing. These take a look at outcomes confirmed traces of methamphetamine — medication Armstead says she took earlier than she knew she was pregnant. As a result of meconium stays within the fetus all through being pregnant, it could present residue of drugs from many months earlier than which are not within the mom’s system.
Baby welfare employees barred Armstead from seeing her daughter, Aziyah, whereas they investigated, and Armstead’s mom stepped in to take care of the new child.
The hospital shared the meconium take a look at outcomes with native police, who then combed via months of medical information for Armstead and her child to construct a felony case. Prosecutors alleged that the medication she had taken a lot earlier within the being pregnant might have put the fetus in danger. Practically a 12 months after she’d delivered a wholesome child, Armstead was arrested and charged with chemical endangerment of a kid.
She is one among lots of of ladies prosecuted on comparable fees in Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Regulation enforcement and prosecutors in these states have expanded their use of kid abuse and neglect legal guidelines lately to police the conduct of pregnant ladies beneath the idea of “fetal personhood,” a tenet promoted by many anti-abortion teams {that a} fetus needs to be handled legally the identical as a toddler.
These legal guidelines have been used to prosecute ladies who lose their pregnancies. However prosecutors are additionally concentrating on individuals who give start and used medication throughout their being pregnant. This tactic represents a big shift towards criminalizing moms: In most states, if a pregnant lady is suspected of utilizing medication, the case may very well be referred to a toddler welfare company, however not police or prosecutors.
Medical privateness legal guidelines have provided little safety. In lots of circumstances, well being care suppliers granted regulation enforcement entry to sufferers’ info, generally and not using a warrant. These ladies have been prosecuted for little one endangerment or neglect even once they delivered wholesome infants, an investigation by The Marshall Venture, AL.com, The Frontier, The Put up & Courier and Mississippi At present discovered.
In these circumstances, whether or not a lady goes to jail usually relies on the place she lives, what hospital she goes to and the way a lot cash she has, our evaluation of information discovered. Most girls charged plead responsible and are separated from their kids for months, years — or ceaselessly. The proof and procedures are hardly ever challenged in court docket.
Prosecutors who pursue these felony circumstances say they’re defending infants from potential hurt and attempting to get the moms assist in some circumstances.
However medical consultants warn that prosecuting pregnant individuals who search well being care might trigger them to keep away from going to a physician or hospital altogether, which is harmful for the mom and the creating fetus. Correct prenatal care and drug therapy needs to be the purpose, they argue — not punishment.
Dr. Tony Scialli, an obstetrician/gynecologist who focuses on reproductive and developmental toxicology, mentioned the prosecutions are an abuse of drug screenings and assessments designed to evaluate the medical wants of the mom and toddler. He mentioned that drug use doesn’t essentially hurt a fetus. “Publicity doesn’t equal toxicity,” Scialli mentioned.
However prosecutors in these states aren’t required to show hurt to the fetus or new child — merely publicity in some unspecified time in the future through the being pregnant.
Authorized consultants say that beneath this expanded use of kid welfare legal guidelines, prosecutors might additionally pursue felony fees for a pregnant one who drinks wine or makes use of leisure marijuana — even the place it’s authorized. Police might additionally comb via medical information to analyze whether or not a life-saving abortion was medically crucial or to allege {that a} miscarriage was really the results of a self-managed abortion.
Due to considerations about folks being criminally punished for searching for reproductive healthcare after final 12 months’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers is working to strengthen privateness guidelines beneath the Well being Insurance coverage Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
Scialli mentioned the prosecutions ignore the consequences of separating a new child from a mom, which analysis has proven harms the kid. A number of research have proven that even when newborns exhibit indicators of drug withdrawal at start, retaining them in hospital rooms with their moms improves their well being outcomes.
Simply because an individual struggles with dependancy doesn’t essentially imply she is an unfit mom, Scialli mentioned. “Even ladies who’re utilizing illicit medication, they’re often extremely motivated to maintain their kids. Except the mom is being neglectful, separating the child and mom shouldn’t be wholesome for both of them.”
Armstead grew up Quitney Butler in City Creek, about two hours northwest of Birmingham. She watched as her city misplaced its Dairy Queen, grocery retailer, and finally even the highschool she graduated from in 2006.
She was deployed to Iraq in 2009, the identical 12 months her college closed. By then, she was 21 with one younger daughter, Eva, together with her boyfriend, Derry Armstead.
In Iraq, she drove vehicles and made certain fellow troopers obtained their mail. She was stationed at Ahead Working Base Hammer, in a stretch of desert east of Baghdad that was usually the goal of assaults.
Armstead got here again from warfare in 2010 “a very totally different particular person,” mentioned her mom, Teresa Tippett. She was argumentative and temperamental.
Her relations “all mentioned I modified after I went over there,” Armstead recalled. “I used to be like, ‘Mama, we have been getting bombed all day, day by day.’”
Armstead got here house in search of an escape. She discovered medication and bother.
After her boyfriend returned from his deployment to Afghanistan, they married in 2012 and had a second daughter, Shelby. However their relationship grew to become tumultuous, information present.
Each have been arrested after a 2014 struggle the place he claimed she broken his property, and she or he claimed he struck her on the leg, court docket information present. The next 12 months, police information allege her husband drove his pickup previous railroad barricades and into the aspect of a shifting prepare, along with his spouse within the passenger seat.
Due to the couple’s combating and arrests, her mom had custody of each Eva and Shelby. Quitney Armstead picked up two drug possession fees, and a misdemeanor cost for throwing a brick on the automotive her husband was in. Their divorce was granted in 2018, court docket information present.
In October 2018, she ended up again in jail after she was arrested on a drug possession cost throughout a police raid of a relative’s home, in keeping with court docket information.
That’s when she discovered she was pregnant with Aziyah, and promised herself she would get clear.
Not lengthy earlier than Armstead’s authorized troubles started, some prosecutors in Alabama began to make use of a chemical endangerment statute — initially designed to guard kids from chemical exposures in house meth labs — to punish ladies whose drug use doubtlessly uncovered their fetuses within the womb.
Identify
Tierra Cowley
Metropolis / State
Decatur, Alabama
What occurred?
Cowley was charged with chemical endangerment after her new child’s first bowel motion confirmed traces of marijuana, which she mentioned she used to fight morning illness early in her 2016 being pregnant.
How did it finish?
She paid hundreds of {dollars} to take part in a pre-trial intervention program to maintain her felony report clear. She scraped collectively each penny she had for fines and costs — usually on the expense of meals and garments for her youngsters. Her son is a wholesome 6-year-old.
Prosecutions differ broadly from county to county. In some areas, district attorneys select to not pursue these fees, whereas one county has charged lots of of ladies. In 2016, lawmakers carved out an exemption for publicity to prescribed drugs, which will also be dangerous to a fetus.
Morgan County District Lawyer Scott Anderson mentioned he doesn’t talk about particulars and details about pending circumstances.
“Nonetheless, I’ll inform you that my place of being keen to permit moms charged with chemical endangerment into diversion applications has not modified. I’m keen to try this and, if in any respect doable, I favor that strategy in resolving these kind circumstances,” he wrote in an electronic mail. “I feel that Ms. Armstead wants therapy for drug dependency and am in favor of her getting it.”
Some Alabama ladies we interviewed prevented a felony conviction and jail time by taking part in pre-trial intervention applications run by prosecutors, which provide some therapy choices. In some counties, the fee is $700 simply to use. Members should maintain making funds to stay enrolled. If they will’t afford to maintain up, they face an automated responsible plea.
In his electronic mail, Anderson mentioned poverty doesn’t stop an individual from getting into diversion applications in his county.
In a number of Alabama circumstances, together with Armstead’s, the mom and her new child initially examined unfavorable for medication — however the hospital despatched the child’s meconium to a lab for extra intensive testing.
Armstead mentioned she by no means granted permission particularly for the take a look at and had no concept her new child’s meconium was being despatched to the Mayo Clinic. A spokesperson for Decatur Morgan Hospital, the place Armstead gave start, wrote in an electronic mail assertion that the hospital drug assessments “all moms who’re admitted to our hospital for labor and supply. Our hospital follows Alabama regulation relating to any required reporting of take a look at outcomes to state authorities.”
A federal regulation requires every state to have a coverage on the best way to report and look at circumstances of drug-exposed newborns — however the federal statute doesn’t require states to conduct felony investigations. About half the states stipulate that healthcare suppliers report back to little one welfare companies when a new child or mom assessments constructive for medication, however solely a handful pursue felony prosecutions of the moms.
Some prosecutors in Alabama, South Carolina and Oklahoma have decided that beneath these states’ legal guidelines and court docket rulings establishing fetal personhood, little one welfare statutes can apply to a fetus. Mississippi doesn’t have a fetal personhood regulation, however that hasn’t stopped prosecutors in a minimum of two counties from submitting felony fees in opposition to ladies who examined constructive for medication whereas pregnant.
Identify
Kearline Bishop
Metropolis / State
Bartlesville, Oklahoma
What occurred?
Bishop checked right into a rehab in 2018 as a result of she was pregnant and fighting meth dependancy. When Bishop was taken to an area ER with contractions, an off-duty police officer working safety referred to as colleagues on the pressure. They confirmed up on the hospital and examined her blood, leading to felony fees.
How did it finish?
She was sentenced to a few years in jail plus 5 years of probation, and misplaced her parental rights to her youngest daughter, who’s now 4 years previous. Bishop did so nicely in jail {that a} choose launched her early, this previous April.
In northeast Mississippi’s Monroe County, Sheriff’s Investigator Spencer Woods mentioned he spearheaded the hassle to start prosecuting ladies beneath the idea of fetal personhood in 2019. Earlier than that, Woods mentioned, when the sheriff’s workplace acquired a referral from Baby Safety Providers a couple of new child testing constructive for medication, officers wouldn’t examine.
“It wouldn’t be dealt with as a result of it didn’t fall beneath the statute. It nonetheless doesn’t fall beneath the statute,” he mentioned. “As a result of the state of Mississippi doesn’t take a look at a toddler as being a toddler till it attracts its first breath. Properly, when that little one assessments constructive when it’s born, the abuse has already occurred, and it didn’t occur to a ‘little one.’ So it was a crack within the system the way in which I checked out it. And that’s the place we’re type of taking part in.”
There are a number of methods regulation enforcement can study of alleged drug use. Generally, little one welfare employees inform police. Often, ladies themselves admit drug use to an investigator; different instances medical doctors, nurses or hospital employees cross take a look at outcomes to regulation enforcement or grant officers entry to medical information and not using a warrant.
The circumstances display how present privateness legal guidelines don’t defend ladies’s medical information from scrutiny by regulation enforcement, mentioned Ji Seon Tune, a regulation professor on the College of California, Irvine, who research how regulation enforcement infringe on sufferers’ privateness.
Identify
Dianne De La Rosa
Metropolis / State
Lacey’s Spring, Alabama
What occurred?
De La Rosa woke to a knock on the door eight months after she gave start to her daughter in 2018. Police had a warrant to arrest her for chemical endangerment of a kid, after a meconium take a look at revealed traces of marijuana from earlier within the being pregnant.
How did it finish?
She did what few others in Alabama might afford to do: rent her personal attorneys. After the attorneys challenged the state’s proof and requested to conduct impartial assessments, the costs have been dismissed. She has custody of her kids.
Baby abuse allegations shouldn’t be a “carte blanche to entry somebody’s personal well being info, however that’s the way it’s getting used,” Tune mentioned. “When the loyalty to the affected person utterly disappears, that’s an institutional downside the hospitals have to take care of.”
As a result of this surveillance system may be used to police ladies who search abortions, federal authorities have proposed a privateness rule addition for HIPAA. Amongst different adjustments, it might prohibit disclosure of personal well being info for felony, civil or administrative investigations in opposition to folks searching for lawful reproductive well being care. The company sought public touch upon the proposed rule via June 16, and is predicted to finish the adjustments in coming months.
Medical teams supporting the adjustments argue that utilizing personal well being info to punish folks criminally harms the physician-patient relationship and ends in substandard care. However a number of state attorneys common — together with the AGs for Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina — wrote a press release opposing the change.
As proposed, the HIPAA adjustments might require regulation enforcement to offer documentation, akin to a search warrant or subpoena, when searching for information associated to somebody’s reproductive healthcare — and medical suppliers might nonetheless refuse, mentioned Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of the Workplace for Civil Rights within the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
“It’s very a lot actual that your info is getting used inappropriately generally; after which that info is then getting used to hunt out felony, civil and administrative prosecution of individuals,” Fontes Rainer mentioned. “We’re on this new period — of sadly concentrating on populations for the sorts of well being care they search.”
In some circumstances, ladies have been arrested and prosecuted after being sincere with their medical doctors about their struggles with substance abuse. At one South Carolina hospital, a brand new mom admitted to occasional drug use whereas pregnant, solely to have hospital employees name police who arrested her after a nurse handed over her medical information.
A couple of ladies have even been prosecuted after searching for therapy.
In 2018, Kearline Bishop was pregnant and fighting meth dependancy. She mentioned she checked herself right into a rehab program in northeast Oklahoma as a result of she knew she wanted assist.
When Bishop appeared to have contractions, the rehab transferred her to an area hospital. A physician at Hillcrest Hospital Claremore decided that she wasn’t but in labor, and that regardless of her previous drug use, her fetus was wholesome.
Then two males Bishop didn’t know walked in. They have been police detectives in plain garments, who demanded a hospital employee draw her blood for testing, in keeping with court docket information. It turned out that an off-duty police officer working safety on the hospital had referred to as his police division supervisor as a result of he’d heard {that a} pregnant lady admitted to drug use.
The detectives didn’t have a search warrant, so that they handed Bishop a “Consent to Search” property type with clean areas on it. The officers crossed out the road the place they’d usually checklist the property to be searched and as a substitute merely wrote “Blood Draw.” Police testified later in court docket that they didn’t advise Bishop she might discuss to a lawyer first.
Bishop had advised the cops she “was in a darkish place, and wanted assist,” in keeping with an affidavit.
The blood assessments confirmed traces of medication in her system. Officers handcuffed Bishop and took her from the hospital to jail. She stayed there till proper earlier than she delivered her child, when she was allowed to go to a therapy home for pregnant ladies for a number of days. When Bishop’s daughter was born, she was wholesome. However little one welfare employees took her from Bishop the subsequent day.
The District Lawyer in Rogers County, northeast of Tulsa, charged Bishop with little one neglect. After an preliminary listening to, a county choose dismissed the cost, ruling the state couldn’t apply its little one welfare codes to a fetus.
However the district lawyer appealed. Then a 2020 determination in a separate case by the Oklahoma Court docket of Prison Appeals dominated that the state’s little one neglect regulation may very well be utilized to fetuses — even ones that didn’t show hurt from drug use. The court docket later dominated that the prosecutor might proceed the case in opposition to Bishop.
District Lawyer Matt Ballard celebrated on Twitter: “My workplace scored a giant victory as we speak combating for unborn kids. I’m happy with all of the work that went into this. #ProtectingUnbornChildren”
Via a spokeswoman, Ballard declined an interview request.
Bishop finally opted for a blind plea — a type of responsible plea that leaves the sentence solely as much as a choose — in January 2022. She was sentenced to a few years in jail, plus 5 years of probation. A court docket terminated her parental rights to her youngest daughter.
Bishop did so nicely in jail {that a} choose reviewed her case and agreed to her launch this previous March, after only one 12 months. Her daughter is now a wholesome 4-year-old, adopted by a member of the family. Bishop has no contact together with her youngest however saves up the cash she makes working to purchase garments to ship to her daughter.
A part of Bishop’s motivation to safe an early launch, she mentioned, was to show that the prosecutors and choose who despatched her to jail have been flawed about her. She mentioned that they by no means gave her an opportunity to point out she’d be a caring mom.
“They checked out me like I wasn’t even human,” she mentioned.
The cloud of cigarette smoke in Kevin Teague’s Decatur regulation workplace is sort of as thick as his north Alabama accent. Teague is Armstead’s court-appointed lawyer. He defends quite a few ladies in Morgan County charged with chemical endangerment of a kid.
Lots of his purchasers — like many of the ladies charged in Alabama and different states — attain plea offers, hardly ever difficult the circumstances in opposition to them. Teague mentioned he had supposed to assist Armstead plead responsible too, however one thing about her case gnawed at him.
“She’s simply had a hell of a life. I imply, she fought for her nation,” he mentioned. “I actually imagine she has some critical PTSD.”
Her nation — and the state of Alabama — owed her one thing higher, he mentioned. It appears unfair that poor individuals who can’t afford pre-trial diversion applications get felony convictions and jail time, whereas individuals who might afford hundreds of {dollars} in charges can get totally different outcomes, Teague mentioned.
Armstead missed an October 2022 court docket listening to — she mentioned she didn’t obtain a discover or have transportation. The absence landed her again in jail in December, and, missing the cash for bail, she’s remained behind bars since.
In the meantime, Teague heard a couple of chemical endangerment case just like Armstead’s through which the defendant challenged the proof and the costs have been dismissed: Dianne De La Rosa.
Eight months after De La Rosa’s daughter was born in 2018 in Huntsville, she and her household woke to a knock on the door at 2 a.m. The police had a warrant for her arrest for chemical endangerment. A meconium take a look at allegedly confirmed traces of marijuana from earlier within the being pregnant.
De La Rosa did one thing that many ladies in Morgan County couldn’t afford. She scraped collectively hundreds of {dollars} to rent her personal lawyer — John Brinkley.
Brinkley is a father of 9, with one other on the way in which. He had waited in lots of supply rooms over time, and he remembered a key element: The hospital doesn’t protect the whole lot it collects when a child is born.
So Brinkley and his regulation companion Justin Nance did one thing uncommon: They requested to conduct their very own impartial drug assessments of the meconium in De La Rosa’s case. Defendants in Alabama have the fitting to request impartial testing of proof. However since so many ladies plead responsible, it hardly ever occurs.
“It’s unclear the factors they’ve for once they do these assessments,” Nance mentioned. “They declare they’re doing them on everyone, however I don’t suppose that’s true.”
Prosecutors admitted that the proof wasn’t preserved, and the costs in opposition to De La Rosa have been dismissed. That took almost three years.
Many ladies charged with chemical endangerment in Alabama can’t afford their very own lawyer to struggle a felony case for years, Brinkley mentioned. “They decide on these much less lucky ladies, after which they simply railroad them.”
After listening to about De La Rosa’s case, Teague filed a movement in late March to have the meconium proof in Armstead’s case independently examined. Prosecutors by no means responded in a written submitting, nor they didn’t flip over the pattern inside 14 days, because the court docket had ordered, Teague mentioned. Armstead’s trial was set for August.
When Teague advised Armstead about submitting that movement — in hopes of getting her case dismissed — she broke down sobbing.
Teague reminded her it might be an extended highway, and she or he would wish to work on her sobriety and fulfill the necessities for a veterans’ court docket program she was provided for an artificial marijuana possession cost in a close-by county. Nevertheless it was a glimmer of hope she might maintain on to.
“I’m not the errors I’ve made,” Armstead mentioned. “My youngsters have been my world.”
Her incarceration has remoted her from household. Her jail doesn’t enable in-person visits from anybody however her lawyer, and she or he barely has the funds to make cellphone calls.
Her daughter Aziyah is 4 years previous now. She and her older sisters solely see Armstead on occasional video calls from the county jail, when the household can afford to place cash in her jail account.
Armstead recalled that in a latest video chat, Aziyah requested her: “Mommy, are you able to simply sneak out of jail for one night time?”
She defined to Aziyah that if she did, she can be there even longer.
“It tore me up,” Armstead mentioned.
Final week, Teague visited her on the jail with information: Morgan County was now providing her a greater plea deal. If she efficiently completes veterans’ court docket in close by Lauderdale County, each her drug possession cost and chemical endangerment cost might be dismissed, he advised her. There can be no conviction for both felony, so long as she didn’t screw up.
Armstead knew this meant the state most likely didn’t have the meconium proof. However taking the plea deal meant getting out of jail sooner and hugging her women. Possibly she can be house in time for back-to-school.
She couldn’t afford to say no.
