GOWDY FIGHTS DRUGS WITH BIRTH CONTROL

Solicitor Trey Gowdy Wants Drug-Dependent Women To Have Easier Access To
Birth Control Methods.

Gowdy formed a committee of medical professionals, attorneys, Department of
Social Service case workers, ministers, and alcohol and drug abuse experts
to develop guidelines for hospitals and law enforcement officers to follow
after a woman tests positive for drugs.

The committee has considered pre- and post-birth procedures for pregnant
women who test positive for drugs.

During their meetings, the solicitor suggested that state agencies
streamline the process for a drug-dependent woman to get birth control.

"The goal is to find a legal and moral way to offer contraception for women
who use controlled substances," Gowdy said. "Many of these women don't want
to get pregnant. It's the lifestyle they lead that can lead to a pregnancy."

Gowdy said the committee is in the process of identifying ideas to improve
access to birth control.

"There's no plan yet. That's why we're meeting. We're exploring ideas and
taking steps to solve the problem," he said.

The solicitor formed the committee after 22-year-old Pamela Cruz-Reyes and
her newborn tested positive for cocaine. Cruz-Reyes is only the second
woman in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties to be charged with unlawful
child neglect after she and her newborn tested positive for drugs.

Gowdy supports treatment-based programs with criminal consequences for
those who refuse or fail to complete treatment. This approach is similar to
drug court in Spartanburg County, where the defendant is ordered to
complete treatment and a sentence is imposed if the defendant doesn't
comply with treatment.

"We don't want to fill the prisons up with mothers," Gowdy said. "My goal
is to have healthy women delivering healthy babies. We don't want to drive
these women underground, but there has to be a non-negotiator -- if you
don't comply with treatment, there will be consequences."

The solicitor will meet today with DSS agents and alcohol and drug abuse
counselors to discuss how to offer drug-dependent women, who don't want to
become pregnant, the opportunity to easily obtain birth control.

According to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control,
low-income women can go to their county health departments to receive
contraception, including birth control pills, patches and injections as
well as barrier methods.

For women with Medicaid, the services are free. For women who don't have
Medicaid, they are charged based on her income.

Currently, any woman requesting contraception information can be referred
to the county health department, but the county Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Commission doesn't make the referral unless the woman asks, said David
Forrester, the director of the Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.

"If a woman wants the contraception, I want to take the transportation
factor, cost and paperwork out of the way," Gowdy said. "If a woman wants
to get pregnant, she has every right. But if a woman is addicted to
controlled substances and doesn't desire to get pregnant, we want to make
(birth control options) free and available."

Gowdy said, in essence, he wants birth control as easy to obtain as the
drugs the woman is getting.

"We want to streamline the process so she isn't going to a hundred
different places to get what she wants," the solicitor said. "I don't want
the process to be so complicated that she becomes discouraged."