Blaming Mothers: American Law and the Risks to Children’s Health

FEATURING LINDA FENTIMAN – When news stories break of mothers being arrested for neglect of their children, it is often presumed that they are guilty. After all, we are awash in parenting advice and ideas about what is best for children; advice that is more often geared toward mothers than fathers, and rarely geared toward society and government. Today American mothers are criminalized more than ever from conception and pregnancy, to birth and beyond. How did it get this way and where is this dangerous trend heading?

Linda Fentiman, Professor at the Elisabeth Haub Law School at Pace University, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and author of Blaming Mothers: American Law and the Risks to Children’s Health.