Basic HTML Version
Wednesday 6 April 2011 – DAY THREE –
Daily Update
– 3
Farah Diaz-Tello
and
Lynn Paltrow
tell the
Daily
Update
about protecting pregnant drug using
women, ahead of yesterday’s session on
reducing harm for women
IN THE UNITED STATES AND AROUND THE WORLD,
women
who use drugs – particularly women whose drug use becomes
problematic – find it hard to get the support and help they need.
State responses tend to focus on punishment through criminal
prosecution and child removal, which undermines, rather than
supports, women, children, and families.
Some US prosecutors claim that drug using pregnant women who
continue their pregnancies should be treated as child abusers. A private
organisation, Project Prevention, falsely suggests that such women
inevitably harm their babies and offers $300 for current and former drug
using women to get sterilised or use long-acting birth control.
Project prevention have now turned their attention to Kenya,
where they are offering HIV+ women $47 to use long-acting birth
control. Recently, several NGOs representing people living with HIV
and AIDS sent a formal inquiry to Project Prevention seeking
information about their activities in Kenya. They responded by
stating in part that ‘everybody is talking about the rights of the
woman’ but they, in contrast, ‘focus on the rights of the child to be
born healthy, the right of the child to parental care and ultimately
their right to life.’
Children indeed have
a right to health. Project
Prevention’s strategy
however does not
advance health – rather
it advances the idea
that states may ensure
children’s health by
preventing certain kinds
of women from pro -
creating and certain
types of children from
ever being born. By
targeting HIV+ women
in extreme poverty and
inducing them to use
long-acting contracep -
tives with cash incen-
tives, Project Prevention
actually undermines
women’s right to family planning and reproductive health, and adds to
the stigma of women and children living with HIV.
It is clear that whether targeting drug using women in the US and
UK or HIV+ women in Kenya, policies that increase stigma hold only
pregnant women accountable for the health of their children, and fail
to support better access to drug treatment and healthcare.
THE VOICES OF WOMEN WERE VERY OFTEN ABSENT
in
conversations about injecting drug use, Bronwyn Myers told
delegates in the
Neglected issues
session. This was despite the
fact that women carried a disproportionate amount of harm, with
higher rates of HIV and other health issues.
The root of the problem could be found in the patriarchal society
and subordinate role of women in many countries, she said, where
it could very often be difficult for them to negotiate safe injecting and
sexual practices and where they remained vulnerable to violence. ‘In
many of the contexts in which women use drugs they’re reliant on
men – to perform injections, to obtain drugs – and it exposes them
to a broad range of risks and creates a sense of indebtedness.’ If
women were also engaged in sex work then that put them at ‘triple
risk’ of violence and exploitation, she said.
There were systemic barriers to women accessing harm reduction
services, she told delegates, including lack of knowledge about
specialist treatment and concern about the punitive nature of the
services, as well as the attitudes of many service providers
themselves. There were also issues of affordability, especially in
patriarchal societies where women either did not have their own
income, or where their income was controlled by men. Women also
often needed their partner’s permission to attend services, she said.
‘Women who use
drugs have multiple
service needs that
extend beyond, and
intersect with, drug
use,’ she said, en-
compassing financial,
housing and other
issues. One way for
harm reduction pro-
viders to engage with
vulnerable and hard-to-
reach women was
through
co-located
services that offered a
comprehensive pack-
age, she said. ‘Services
that aren’t labelled
“drug services” can
minimise stigma. We also need to scale up outreach services, but
most importantly we need to work hard to hear women’s voices rather
than just impose our own ideas.’
Women carry bulk of drugs harm
Pregnant drug users need better support
Bronwyn Myers:
‘Women... often
needed their partner’s permission to
attend services.’
Lynn Paltrow:
‘Some US prosecutors
claim that drug using pregnant women
who continue their pregnancies should
be treated as child abusers.’