Gender Issues in California's Perinatal Substance Abuse Policy

Abstract

This article examines gender issues that arose when California created and passed a law related to substance-exposed infants in 1990. The law intended to clarify whether prenatal alcohol and drug use was a reportable form of child abuse. The authors conducted 32 interviews with those who created the law and those who implemented part of the law, creating a model protocol. The authors also collected documents related to the overall project, such as the final report, the model protocol itself and comments on a draft protocol, and minutes of meetings. Three gender issues arose in interviews with the law's framers and the protocol developers. First, the discourse about the law and the process of the law's creation was a divisive one. Members took sides as being either “pro-woman” or “pro-child.” These positions were also respectively aligned with a further division: one was either “pro-treatment” or “pro-protection.” Second, there were issues related to drug testing and the purposes of such testing. Drug test results were, and continue to be, turned over to child welfare agencies when women are reported as suspected child abusers, and interviewees expressed concerns about gender equity and women's rights. Finally, fathers were noticeably absentfrom policy discussion and policy-related documents.