Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Vesperi, Maria

Second Advisor

Dean, Erin

Keywords

Women in Prison, Substance Abuse, Pregnancy, Reproductive Rights

Area of Concentration

Anthropology, Gender Studies

Abstract

This thesis will explore the criminalization of pregnant substance abuse and the effects on perceptions of motherhood. Specifically, it employs Foucault's theory of biopower to understand how legislation, the prison-industrial complex, and the medicalization of pregnancy allow the state to define and assume responsibility for "unfit mothers." Such occurrences are portrayed as operating for the benefit of the fetus. However, I posit that these initiatives are better understood as responses to economic and social anxieties. I then assess the implications of criminalizing pregnant substance abuse for reproductive rights.

Rights

The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.

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