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Helping Pregnant Drug Addicts Get Clean

At Phoenix Center’s Serenity Place, pregnant women who are addicted to drugs learn how to get clean and be good mothers to their unborn children. CNN’s Stephanie Chen writes that in July, the South Carolina drug-treatment program was treating 16 women, some of whom faced going to jail if they didn’t get clean.

South Carolina's state supreme court is alone in upholding the prosecution of pregnant women for the damage drugs might do to their unborn children. Local and state agencies across the country have found ways to prosecute pregnant women for drug use, but the cases are often rejected by the courts. Judges in more than 12 states have overturned decisions that criminalize pregnant addicts. In recent years, Missouri and North Dakota have ruled against charging pregnant women with neglect and endangerment.

Ashley Hendrix, 24, is eight months pregnant with her first child, and has been using marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, and prescription drugs for more than a decade.

"To this day, I still cry about it, " she said, "that if anything does come out wrong with my baby, I know that my drug use is the reason why.”

Hendrix told CNN that her mother was an addict, and her father was a violent alcoholic who once held a shotgun to her grandmother’s head. She was taken in by her grandparents at age 3, but her grandfather died of a heart attack when she was 12. It was then that Hendrix started experimenting with drugs.

By age 18, she was using cocaine and methamphetamine, and then started abusing prescription painkillers. Even during her pregnancy, she was injecting herself with OxyContin. At six months pregnant, Hendrix was on probation for stealing jewelry to feed her drug habit, so she admitted herself to Serenity Place.

Since 1989, at least 126 women in South Carolina have been arrested during their pregnancies, according to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Most were charged with drug and alcohol use that presented harm to the fetus. During the same period, only about 80 pregnant women were arrested on similar charges in all other states combined.

Stephen Donaldson, program manager of a drug-treatment facility in Charleston County, says that in South Carolina, "Word on the street is if you use during pregnancy, you're being prosecuted or you're losing your baby."

At Serenity Place, a residential treatment center designed for pregnant women and new mothers, the goal is to help the women recover from their addiction and give them the confidence they need to become better mothers. They want the women to know there are second chances, and there is hope.

"I'm grateful everyday for being here and I'm grateful to have my baby with me," says Kim Clark, 28, who gave birth to her son Jaelyn at the center. "I've been using drugs since I was 11 years old. I didn't know any other life. And I've learned a lot about myself. I've been taught things here."

She graduated in August, has her own apartment now and works to support herself and her son.

Some women come to Serenity Place voluntarily, and others were sent by the state's Department of Social Services. Others made a plea bargain with the courts, allowing them one last chance at treatment to avoid prison.

"My biggest fear was the [health of the] baby, but right behind that was that 'I'm going to go to jail'," says Sandria Doremus, one of Hendrix' classmates at Serenity. Afraid of being turned in for her opiate addiction, she delayed getting prenatal care. "I should have gone in a lot sooner," she admits.

Doremus, 37, arrived at Serenity after a hospital reported her drug use to law enforcement officials, as required by law. When CNN visited Serenity Place in July, Doremus was cuddling her 8-month-old son, Matthew, who was born with heroin in his system and placed on methadone. He is healthy today, but studies show that drug-exposed babies can face developmental delays and learning disabilities in later years.

In 1997, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a fetus in the third trimester was viable and charges of child abuse, neglect and murder could apply to the mother. Some treatment providers and advocacy experts say this ruling opened the door for prosecutors to charge pregnant women.

"These are addicts who become pregnant," says Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. "They aren't women who chose to use drugs after becoming pregnant."

Research shows that women who remain with their children during treatment have better chances of defeating their addictions. But a national study in 2005 found that only 3 percent of treatment centers had programs tailored specifically to pregnant women. About 14 percent of treatment centers accepted pregnant or postpartum women.

The women at Serenity Place follow a rigid schedule that includes therapy, parenting classes and chores, and they spend about six months in treatment. They aren't allowed phone calls or the freedom to surf the Internet without permission. Security cameras guard all exits. If a woman violates the rules, she can be removed from the program.

Wanda McMichael, manager of women's services at Serenity Place, knows that treatment can be beneficial, as she guides women like Hendrix through that process. Some who graduated from the program when it began in 1993 still remain clean.
"What's the other alternative if they don't come here?" says McMichael. "It's prison. That costs more than treatment, but a lot of people don't know that. If these women don't get this treatment, they are going to die."

Hendrix’s son, who was born July 24, is healthy. Hendrix left Serenity in August for an intensive outpatient treatment program, and she and her baby live with her grandmother in Union.

Of the 16 women enrolled in Serenity in July, half have graduated, program directors say.

Six continue receiving treatment and two have left the center. Three women are on a waiting list to get in, including one who is pregnant.

Hendrix hopes to get her GED and enroll in the University of South Carolina to study psychology next year.

"I am happy today," she says, "and that's something I haven't felt in a long time. "My grandmother. My baby. They make me happy. But you know, it's not about them, jail or none of that anymore. That all changed. I am doing this for me."

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