Criminalizing The Fertile Female Body: An Analysis of the Current U.S. Opioid Crisis

The recent and significant uptick in opioid abuse and addiction is largely due to the fact that physicians have been prescribing opioids for long-term use for non-cancer pain patients at an extremely high rate since the 1990s, as a result of deceitful marketing and financial support on behalf of pharmaceutical companies aimed at medical associations, hospitals, and doctors themselves. The major issue is that the education that physicians received was based on weak claims, incomplete studies and short-term trials only, therefore, leaving the realm of long-term opioid use entirely uncharted. In my work, I will present my analysis of treatment plans in place and offer a critique of which solutions are most beneficial and therefore are worth funding. I will additionally analyze why the U.S. opioid crisis has particularly affected white rural populations and why deaths due to opioid overdose are disproportionately afflicting women. I will then discuss issues of female bodily autonomy and ethics as I work through the way in which pregnant women addicted to opioids have been treated by the legal, medical, and social realms of society. By framing my research around the “moral model,” I will address the ways in which punitive policies further victimize pregnant women and criminalize their bodies. After analyzing the ways in which certain policies and treatment programs actually deter addicted pregnant women from receiving the care they need, I will make recommendations for how policymakers, physicians and prescribers, educators, and the media can work to improve the situation for this vulnerable and marginalized population.