Because the evidence on cocaine damage to a fetus is mixed at best. The "crack baby" phenomenon of 20 years ago was just cultural fear-mongering. "Oh, isn't it awful!" People seem to like having a couple of "Oh, isn't it awful" stories swirling around at any given moment.

You know what drug does cause measurable, serious, long-lasting damage to a fetus? Alcohol. Yes yes, I'm sure most Salon readers already know that. It's worth repeating.

This woman is no hero. A mom-to-be smoking crack is probably going to be a bad mother for all kinds of reasons. Killing her baby from the inside is probably not one of them.

Holy christ. I know my outrage is several years late, but it is real nevertheless.

That's true, but as i'm sure you'd agree, even bad people have Constitutional rights.

I'm not familiar with the law, but is a woman required to eat right, not smoke, not drink, not do drugs (of the legal kind), or do anything else that might potentially harm her unborn child? Is this actually codified somewhere?

I understand if she tried to abort past the legal limit for her community, but this goes far beyond that. By definition a stillbirth is a birth, and not an abortion.

This woman shouldn't have been prosecuted for anything beyond the illegal drug charges.

but there should definitely be some jail time. Cocaine might have not caused the baby to die...but it most likely added to fetal stress...and anyone with a straight mind should know not to drink or do drugs when your pregnant...go to rehab...find a safe alternative...like eating more....

yeah....so...it was her stupidity...put her ass in a cell for a couple of weeks...then in a half-way house or something...and if she doesn't want to clean up...then put her back in jail.

duh, America...life could be a lot nicer, and less complicated, if rules were more strict.

Nope, not in this country. It is a woman's "right" to treat her unborn child like shit. And just imagine, that 50 years ago, this actually would have been ILLEGAL! Man, we as a people have really "progressed"!

is going to put some focus on the cocaine addicted, full term fetus? Abortion at 37 weeks is abhorent, either intentionally or because of a reckless disregard.

"Nope, not in this country. It is a woman's "right" to treat her unborn child like shit. And just imagine, that 50 years ago, this actually would have been ILLEGAL! Man, we as a people have really "progressed"!"

Well, 50 years ago, women fairly routinely smoked, drank, and popped valium and diet pills during pregnancy, and no one thought much of it. I imagine a goodly number did other types of drugs, as well. So, yes, we HAVE progressed - its now widely known that these things cause damage to developing fetuses, and women are strongly discouraged from doing them. Some still choose to partake, but many more chose to abstain, at least for the duration of the pregnancy.

duh, America...life could be a lot nicer, and less complicated, if rules were more strict.

-- Cataract

...as long as you get to make those strict rules. Just ask anyone living in an Islamic state with sharia law; as long as you believe in conservative Islam it's great. I guess it's just too bad humanity has diversity.

There are over 1 million miscarriages and stillbirths a year in the US. They are an unfortunate fact of life. Pre-natal care helps but who really believes that is on a druggie's todo list? Treat/prosecute the cocaine habit. Let's face it, the stillbirth was only tacked on to increase the sentencing time. I would also be interested to know if the DA in this case was pro-life.

Trying to figure out if you are serious. The ellipsis suggest not. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part...

"This decision puts Solicitors [prosecutors] across the state on notice that they must actually prove that an illegal drug has risked or caused harm -- not simply rely on prejudice and medical misinformation," said Susan K. Dunn, South Carolina co-counsel for amicus.

IMO there's far too much emphasis being placed on whether a given substance is legal or not legal.

There are lots of things that could potentially harm a pregnant woman and/or her fetus and only a small fraction of them are illegal.

Sure. She should do jail time for cocaine possession.

and start arresting men who drink, smoke, or use drugs several months before knocking someone up:

http://menshealth.about.com/cs/stds/a/healthy_sperm.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fertility/MC00023

While I don't think we should police everything a woman consumers during pregnancy, I'm not real comfortable defending a woman's right to do cocaine while pregnant.

stillbirth is nobody's fault(sometimes) and shouldn't be a crime, for sure.

But, if your going to get pregnant, please put down the pipe or rolled up dollar bill.

Islam goes too far with the conservative law....America completely ignores it.

We as a country are way too neglecting of seriously needed moral.

We are poisoned. Media, loose laws, loose freedom.

There are some freedoms we should have, and some we should not.

We should have the right to freedom, but they are prosecuting this woman for the wrong thing. She is a drug addict...she should be charged like a drug addict. In my opinion hard core drug users get too much free rope. She knew she was pregnant and in her stupidity, yes, she endangered her unborn child.

of course she won't be punished for that, because it's unborn, but she should be punished as a drug user.

That's already illegal. It's defending a woman from homicide charges for doing cocaine while pregnant.

As others have mentioned there are plenty of legal substances that will have a worse effect on a fetus. Should we illegalize those for pregnant women? Should we lock all pregnant women up in compounds so we can control their eating and drinking habits?