Ohio Court Overturns Conviction of Pregnant Woman for Drug Use - Ms. Magazine

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The Ohio case is part of a growing nationwide movement to manipulate the law to punish pregnant women for personal drug use.

Hundreds of people in Dayton, Ohio, marched on May 14, 2022, two weeks after the Supreme Court decision that eventually overturnedAn Ohio court of appeals unanimously overturned a pregnant woman’s conviction under the state’s “Extensive evidence shows criminalizing pregnant women for substance abuse.

The Ohio case involved Tara Hollingshead, who voluntarily admitted to using fentanyl while in labor at an Ohio hospital. Prosecutors took the aggressive step of charging Hollingshead under anthat dictates no person shall “by any means, furnish or administer a controlled substance to a pregnant woman or induce or cause a pregnant woman to use a controlled substance, when the offender knows that the woman is pregnant or is reckless in that regard.

The move marks the first time that Ohio prosecutors used this law to prosecute a pregnant person for the personal use of controlled substances. Prosecutors made the novel argument that, even though the law is entitled “Corrupting Another with Drugs,” the law was applicable to pregnant people who administered the drugs to themselves. A jury had previously convicted Hollingshead of a first-degree felony in April 2022, sentencing her to a mandatory eight to 12 years in prison.

Hollingshead appealed her conviction, arguing that the law was misapplied to criminalize pregnant people who were never intended to be covered under the law. Theagreed, holding that personal drug use was outside the scope of the law and that the prosecutor’s interpretation of the statute was unreasonable, as it requires “use of the terms administer, furnish, induce and cause in ways that are inconsistent with common usage.

 

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