'COKE MOM' BILL PASSED IN ASSEMBLY

Law would compel treatment

Madison Wisconsin took a step Wednesday toward becoming the first
state in the nation where judges could protect the unborn by detaining
pregnant women and forcing them to be treated for drug or alcohol abuse.

The legislation, known as the "cocaine mom bill," was drafted after
incidents in Waukesha and Racine in which pregnant women refused to get
treatment for their abuse of alcohol and drugs.

The Assembly passed the bill in a 6927 vote. The bill will go to the
Senate in midJanuary, when the Legislature goes back to work.

A move to expand the bill to include pregnant smokers addicted to
nicotine failed, despite a blunt warning from a legislator who also is a
physician.

"Smoking causes more problems for unborn children than anything else,"
Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (DMilwaukee) said.

If the Legislature passes the bill, Gov. Tommy Thompson is likely to
sign it into law, Thompson aide Kevin Keane said.

"In principle, the governor supports efforts to protect unborn children
against chemical abuse," Keane said.

"What we are doing is protecting the unborn baby," said Rep. Bonnie
Ladwig (RRacine), the bill's chief Assembly sponsor. "A lot of (fetal)
damage can be done during the first several months," especially by
excessive drinking, she said.

Ladwig said taxpayers pay "millions of dollars" to treat often for
their entire lives babies born with fetal alcohol syndrome and drug
addictions.

But opponents said the bill unfairly targets only women, would punish
and not rehabilitate those women, and would cause an increase in
abortions. Opponents also cited opposition by treatment professionals
and public health officials in Milwaukee and Madison.

"These women don't need more people ganging up on them. They need help,"
said Rep. Peter Bock (DMilwaukee). "Nobody's going to the boyfriend and
saying, 'What are you doing?' It's always the women we're going after."

At Ladwig's request, the Assembly expanded the bill to cover fetuses
from the moment of conception. Originally, the bill covered only fetuses
that are "viable," those that could live outside the womb.

Under the bill, physicians and other medical professionals would have to
report a pregnant woman who refused to stop abusing alcohol and drugs or
be treated. If the woman agreed to seek treatment, the medical
professional would not have to report her.

After a hearing, a judge could order the woman to be held in a treatment
facility, other secure facility or even in the home of a parent. If the
judge ruled the unborn fetus a "child in need of protection" a law now
used to help and protect children the woman could be held until she
gave birth.

No other state has a similar law, said a legislative researcher who
helped draft the bill.

Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen (RTown of Brookfield) said a new law is
needed because of the Waukesha woman, pregnant with her second child,
who tested positive for cocaine use, and the Racine woman who was nine
months pregnant and who bragged that she planned to drink until it
killed her baby.

In both cases, the women "clearly did not care at all" what damage they
might be doing to their fetuses, Jensen added. He said the Waukesha
woman Angela M. now is pregnant again.

In her previous pregnancy, a Waukesha County judge ordered the woman
detained, but her lawyer fought the order all the way to the state
Supreme Court, which ruled it could find no law specifically authorizing
judges to hold pregnant women with alcohol or drug addictions.

Rep. Jeff Plale (DSouth Milwaukee) said the bill would give a "slight
voice" to the unborn child being poisoned by alcohol or drug addiction.

"It's about saving women, and it's about saving children," Plale said.

But other Milwaukeearea Democrats said treatment facilities for
pregnant women have long waiting lists, so the bill would only punish
those women by threatening them with a court hearing.

To avoid a court hearing, many of those women will have abortions
especially because of the change making women who are are only a few
weeks pregnant subject to the law, state Rep. Barbara Notestein
(DMilwaukee) predicted.

"This is the worst form of lawmaking we can engage in," Notestein said.
"We are refusing to listen to the people who are experts in this area...
I don't know why we think we know better."

Rep. Shirley Krug (DMilwaukee) said a Milwaukee facility, Meta House,
that treats addicted pregnant women has had its state subsidy cut and
has a long waiting list, but the bill included no additional money to
pay for treatment programs.

"We over and over and over again take the easiest way out," Krug added.

Bock and Wasserman tried to amend the bill to include pregnant women
addicted to nicotine, but that effort was derailed by a parliamentary
maneuver.

Nicotine is more addictive than either cocaine or alcohol, said
Wasserman, who said that 21% of pregnant women in Wisconsin smoke.

Ladwig got the move to include smokers killed.

"We did not seek to solve every single problem," she said.