A Wisconsin woman is challenging an abortion law in her state after being arrested for refusing to take medication for a drug addiction she no longer battled, The New York Times reported.
Alicia Beltran, 28, was 14 weeks pregnant when she attended her first prenatal checkup. While speaking with a physician's assitant, she admitted she previously dealt with a prescription pill addiction though she was clean -- proven by a urine test.
However, the physician's assistant said she must continue the medication she once took to curb her addiction. When Beltran refused, a social worker showed up at her home and led to her arrest.
She was eventually transported to court, where a judge dismissed her plea for a lawyer though already appointed one for her fetus.
"I didn't know unborn children had lawyers," Beltran said, currently six months pregnant. "I said, 'Where's my lawyer?'"
The Wisconsin law, known as the "cocaine mom" law, enacted in 1998, allowes authorities to control a pregnant woman who "habitually lacks self-control" with drugs and alcohol "to a severe degree" if she refuses treatment.
"Alicia had no idea she was giving information to the physician's assistant that would ultimately be used against her in a court of law," said Linda Vanden Heuvel, one of Beltran's attorneys. "She should not have to fear losing her liberty because she was pregnant and she was honest with her doctor."
Pro-choice advocates say the law scares women away from getting the proper medical treatment they need during pregnancy.
"This is what happens when laws give officials the authority to treat fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses as if they are already completely separate from the pregnant woman," said Lynn M. Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women.
According to the federal suit filed this month, the abortion law deprives women of physical liberty, medical privacy, due process, and other constitutional rights in addition to scaring pregnant women away from prenatal care.
Retired state represenative Bonnie Ladwig, who helped create the law, defended it's purpose.
"It's the same as abuse of a child after it's born," she said. "If the mother isn't smart enough not to do drugs, we've got to step in," Ladwig said.
Other Wisconsin officials have declined to comment on the case.
