Pregnant American women ended up in prison: They can be detained indefinitely without charge! THIS is the reason – Topky.sk

23-year-old Ashley Banks from Alabama, USA, was jailed indefinitely after police arrested her for smoking marijuana the day they found out she was pregnant. She spent the next three months in the Etowah County Jail despite her high-risk pregnancy, LAD Bible reports. Back in 2013, a state law entered into force, according to which a woman may not endanger the fetus with a chemical substance. Therefore, women who test positive for drugs in Wtowah County during pregnancy can be detained indefinitely. They will remain in the cell until they complete drug rehab. They must also post bail of $10,000 (€10,007). Photo gallery (3) Source: Getty Images In Banks’s case, no rehabilitation facility would accept her because she was not an addict. The state refused to accept her bail for release because she had not secured a place in a rehabilitation facility – specialists had twice evaluated her case and twice found her ineligible for rehabilitation. She was finally released on August 25, three months after her imprisonment. She spent the last five weeks of her pregnancy bleeding, suffering from hunger and fainting spells. This is far from the only time a pregnant woman has been jailed indefinitely in Alabama. National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) attorney Emma Roth told AL.com that several other women should be released from the same Etowah County jail. Photo gallery (3) Illustration photo.
Source: Getty Images APW researchers found that more than 150 women have been detained under the same law on chemical endangerment of the fetus so far. According to information from AL.com, seven pregnant or postpartum women were registered in the prison system in the period from April to August 2022 alone. Hali Burns, a mother of two, was arrested six days after the birth of her son. She was taking a drug used to treat pregnant women with opioid use disorder. Burns has so far disputed the test results that landed her in prison, with her lawyers saying her medication produced false positives for methamphetamine. Prosecutors, on the other hand, dispute her claims, but neither a judge nor a jury has yet reviewed the evidence in her case. Burns has been in jail for more than two months.