LAW ABOUT HARMING FETUS IS CHALLENGED

Woman Who Took Drugs Had Pleaded Guilty To Killing Her Stillborn Child

COLUMBIA -- A state Supreme Court case expected to decide whether mothers
could be prosecuted for taking drugs while in the late stages of pregnancy
focused instead on legal details during arguments Wednesday.

The lawyer for Brenda Peppers, who pleaded guilty in 1999 to killing her
stillborn child by taking crack cocaine, wanted to argue that the law she
was prosecuted under is unconstitutional.

But justices instead questioned both sides about whether Peppers could
include a condition in her plea agreement allowing her to take her case to
the high court.

"How can we do anything but send this matter back for a retrial or
re-plea?" Chief Justice Jean Toal asked Assistant Attorney General Harold
Coombs Jr. "She made the conditional plea and (case precedent) says we
can't allow that. How do we get around that?"

Coombs argued that nothing has changed legally since the S.C. Supreme Court
ruled in 1997 that women could be prosecuted under child abuse laws if they
harmed an unborn child able to live outside the womb. The court also ruled
that a viable fetus is a child and holds certain rights.

Pepper's lawyer, Rauch Wise, said that ruling opens the door to mothers
being prosecuted for more than smoking crack.

"Once you accept that premise, then it's anything that has potential for
harming a child, a viable fetus, that could be prosecuted - that includes
gaining too much weight, that includes a diabetic woman who gets pregnant,"
Wise said.

Wise also questioned whether women could be accused of child abuse after
smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol.

Opponents of South Carolina's decision to prosecute mothers who use cocaine
say the practice is rooted in bad science from the "crack baby" phenomenon
of the 1980s.

Studies show using cocaine is about as harmful to a fetus as cigarette
smoking and less harmful than heavy drinking, said Dr. Deborah Frank, an
associate professor of pediatrics at Boston University.