Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Drug Use During Pregnancy Isnt Child Abuse

(Hot Air) This may not sound like its a case about abortion but it is. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overruled a lower court which had determined that a woman could be held liable for child abuse because she used drugs during her pregnancy and gave birth to a baby who spent two weeks detoxing in a hospital. The reasoning here is simple: Prior to birth a fetus isnt a person thus the law cant protect them from harm. From the Associated Press: The Supreme Courts main opinion said the laws definition of a child does not include fetuses or unborn children and victims of perpetrators must be children under the Child Protective Services Law. The fact that the actor at a later date becomes a person who meets one of the statutorily-defined categories of perpetrator does not bring her earlier actions even if committed within two years of the childs bodily injury under the CPSL" wrote Justice Christine Donohue. Two judges dissented arguing that this case should rest not on whether the fetus was a person at the time of the abuse (i.e. when mom was using drugs) but whether it was a person at the time the injury took place (when the baby spent two weeks in a hospital detoxing).