Sarah Roberts, DrPH, is an associate professor at ANSIRH at the University of California, San Francisco. She studies the ways policies and the health care system punish, rather than support, vulnerable pregnant women.
We as biomedical and public health professionals are tasked with a responsibility to understand and promote good health for everyone in the United States; it is time for our elected and appointed officials to do the same.
The prosecution of Jennifer Whalen for purchasing her daughter abortion-inducing medication is reminiscent of the way that hospitals, Child Protective Services, and law enforcement have historically responded to drug use during pregnancy.
