Campaign Aims to Treat Pregnant Women Who Battle Addiction

Campaign emphasizes treatment over criminalizing women.

By Jamilah King Feb 17, 2014

Young Women United, an Albuquerque-based reproductive justice organization that helped win a hard fought victory against New Mexico’s recent anti-abortion bill, is now focusing its lens on pregnant women who are battling drug addiction. 

The group says that instead of criminalizing these women, there should be more resources to help treat them. From Indiegogo:

Women who are substance using and pregnant at the same time face a criminal (in) justice system that only serves to shame and stigmatize addiction.  Mothers who use are often judged and told they must love their drugs more than their kids or that if they really loved their kids they would simply stop using.  We want to make a short video to highlight the powerful stories of strength and resiliency of our communities and shed light on the lived realities of people who struggle with addiction every day. By challenging exiting narratives around parenting and addiction, we hope to  demonstrate the need for increased access to prenatal care and treatment for women who are pregnant and substance using.

The group has started an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for their campaign to educate the public and impact public policy. The public education campaign draws from the first-hand experiences of women who have been pregnant and using substances at the same time. The goal is to "change the landscape of the way people think of addiction and parenting."