Protection

I just don't get it. They are talking about a law in Australia that will protect the rights of the unborn child, basically protecting them against child abuse. If a parent is a known addict and gets pregnant they will be forced to sign a parental contract that will allow their baby to be taken at birth if it's broken. The way to break the contract is to have a positive drug test, or to stay in an abusive relationship. 

With the abusive relationship this doesn't mean staying with the man you love who has suddenly changed and has actually started to act like a man and stop beating you. He would of course have to undergo counselling and the couple would have to prove there was no more abuse. I'm in 2 minds over this one. The fact that some women are so traumatised by years of abuse and conditioned to do what their man says and to take what he dishes out, does not to me mean that she feels she has any options. Now we all know there are options but unless we walk a day in their shoes we really don't know. I stayed for years of psychological abuse, only leaving when it did get violent. If it hadn't, who knows maybe I'd still be there and my girls would have had to live with the same abuse I did, and grown up to be completely different people. 

With a positive drug test on the other hand, I feel completely differently. To me one single positive test for marijuana is child abuse. It makes no difference if it is one or 100, one single test is enough for me to say, strip that woman of all rights. Now I read a letter to the editor in the paper this morning, decrying the idea, calling it the same as the stolen generation. Ummm, no it's not. I in no way advocate what happened to the stolen generation, these children were taken from parents who's only crime (and I say that tongue in cheek as it is not a crime), was to have different coloured skin. They would of loved their children and raised them as well as they could, just like any other parent of the times. There were in fact many white parents who didn't deserve to have their children, but the fact they were white meant they couldn't possibly be abusing their children. Sorry going off on a different tangent now, but the fact is that removing a child who has been abused while still in the womb is not the same. We know that what happened with the stolen generation was wrong, we understand that it should never of happened. So if these poor babies born to drug addicted parents and who suffer greatly with withdrawal from birth, are not removed we all know it will also be wrong. Sure the parents should have a chance to prove they can change, it is every ones right to show that while they may of been wrong in the past they have changed, but is it not the babys right to be given a safe and loving environment to grow up in? Does that baby not have the same right as it's parent to make choices and not have them made for them. 

The baby born to a drug addicted mother suffers from birth with withdrawal, they can have birth defects and be mentally handicapped in some way. They are also at high risk of developing a drug addiction themselves later in life. And what of the parent, their baby gets taken away, they get stoned and forget about it. They may protest and claim to fight everyday and decry their rights being taken away. But I can't see how they can possibly say that they love their child and that anyone can believe it. In this day and age, I cannot believe there is a single person who does not know the dangers of abusing drugs while pregnant. There is too much information out there and it's not hidden away or only available to those with money. If you attend a medical centre while pregnant they will tell you it isn't safe to do drugs, your friends will tell you the same, your family knows all about it. So don't claim ignorance. It's even something taught in schools when they talk about the danger of drugs. 

I have personally heard someone say that smoking a little pot won't hurt their baby. This person is not a doctor they are not a scientist, in fact they haven't even finished school, so how would they know. Seriously that is just a lie they tell themselves to feel good about the fact they know they are fucking with their babies lives. So, your a mother who has had a history of drugs and drink, you have no children living with you, and you get pregnant again. Does your life change? If the answer is no, your going to keep doing whatever you want cause its your right as an adult, then you are nothing but a child abuser. Don't scream about 'The Man' taking away your precious baby, while making no changes to your life. If you want to have a healthy happy baby living with you as part of your family, then make the changes. Do not do drugs, listen to the experts, dump all those so called friends of yours who you know are losers and going nowhere but down. And just maybe you will win the right to be a parent. 

If you refuse to change your lifestyle, I say again, you are nothing more than a child abuser and you don't deserve anything. 

Catch yas
Cathy