Last Updated June 23, 2004

In October 1997, Drug Policy Alliance filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the United States Supreme Court supporting Cornelia Whitner in her attempt to overturn a South Carolina Supreme Court decision which allowed her to be criminally prosecuted for using drugs while she was pregnant.  The brief, which was filed on behalf of prominent medical and public health groups as well as leading researchers on cocaine and pregnancy, argued that the South Carolina Supreme Court decision posed a real threat to the health and well-being of women and their families by serving to drive pregnant women away from medical, substance abuse, counseling, prenatal, and other necessary care. 

In 1992, Cornelia Whitner was sentenced to eight years in prison for smoking crack cocaine while she was pregnant.  She was charged with unlawful child neglect.  In 1997, the South Carolina Supreme Court used the Whitner case rule that pregnant women who risk harm to their viable fetuses may be prosecuted under the state child abuse laws.  The South Carolina Supreme Court became the first (and remains the only) state supreme court to issue such a sweeping ruling.  The impact of the Whitner decision on the health and well-being of women and children in South Carolina has been devastating.  The decision gave law enforcement a green light to arrest and prosecute pregnant women for child abuse who suffered from drug and alcohol dependence.  The decision also opened the doors for prosecuting women for homicide by child abuse, as in the case of South Carolina vs. Regina McKnight. 

Ms. Whitner appealed the South Carolina Supreme Court decision to the United States Supreme Court.  Groups which joined in the friend-of-the-court brief filed by Drug Policy Alliance included the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Nurses Association, and the American Medical Women's Association.  The U.S. Supreme Court decided to deny Ms. Whitner's petition for writ of certiorari.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Ms. McKnight's appeal. She was the first of many people to serve prison sentences for murder based on the "viable fetus" statute.