Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women’s Reproduction in America

4. “Baby-Killers”: Neonaticide and Infant Abandonment

74 4 “Baby-Killers” Neonaticide and Infant Abandonment The point here is not that infanticide is excusable, but rather that it is far from ‘unthinkable.’ —Cheryl L. Meyer, Michelle Oberman, et al., Mothers Who Kill Their Children, 2001 I got to go to school, I got to go to school. —A 17-year-old Harlem girl, who brought a dead baby girl in a plastic bag to the hospital on her way to school, speaking to hospital staff, quoted in New York Times, 2005 Of the 4 million women who give birth each year in the United States, a tiny fraction of a percent will abandon or kill their newborns. Though probably only a couple hundred in number, these cases are disturbing for a host of reasons. Many represent everything that is wrong with reproductive policy in the United States. A young woman becomes pregnant without meaning to. She experiences a pregnancy that nobody acknowledges, much less supports, and that she herself denies exists. She is terrified that others will notice her pregnancy, rather than being hopeful or proud. She gives birth without any intent or wish to become a mother. Her need for medical treatment often is what leads to the police being summoned . She perceives virtually everything about the reproductive experience as being beyond her control.1 The phenomena of neonaticide (the killing of a newborn) and infant abandonment map in sharp relief our society’s discomfort with adolescent sexuality, our failure to address the problems of unintended pregnancies , sexual abuse, and statutory rape, and the stigma that continues “Baby-Killers” 75 to be attached to abortion and teenage pregnancies.2 In this chapter, I am not arguing that a woman or girl has a right to kill or abandon her baby. Respecting women’s reproductive rights does require, however , that we recognize not only the precarious psychological state of the woman or girl who commits neonaticide but also the precarious social context in which her actions take place. Instead of laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of the neonaticidal woman or girl, we should consider, too, society’s role in ensuring that consent to sex is given freely and without coercion and that pregnancies are intended— and supported. The criminal justice system seems ill suited to this challenge. Pregnancy Denial and Magical Thinking Reliable estimates of the incidence of abandonment and neonaticide do not exist. What we know comes mainly from findings of small-scale studies that have gleaned information from a variety of sources, including news accounts and legal cases, psychiatrists’ records, and police and prison records .3 The total number of known neonaticide or abandonment cases probably does not exceed a few hundred a year at most.4 The highly secretive circumstances surrounding these events mean that many (and quite possibly most) cases are never discovered and therefore are not reflected in official statistics. Existing information suggests that neonaticide and abandonment take place across the spectrum of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class.5 It also appears that a disproportionate number of cases involve young women in their teens and twenties. Like other teenagers who get pregnant , the young woman who abandons or kills her newborn typically is unmarried and physically healthy. She probably lives with her parents, guardians, or other relatives.6 She is often deeply concerned about the reaction of her parents and those around her.7 She may be mortified that she got pregnant in the first place. In other words, she experiences some of the normal reactions that often accompany an unintended and unwanted pregnancy.8 In other respects, young women who abandon or kill their newborns are unique. For one, they typically are in a state of profound denial that they are pregnant and are going to have a baby. Other women, upon realizing they are experiencing an unwanted pregnancy, consider an abortion, adoption, or how they are going to navigate motherhood.9 By contrast, a 76 “Baby-Killers” woman or girl who kills her newborn often spends her pregnancy hoping the problem will resolve itself. She may lack the sense of personal efficacy or social ties that would lead her to seek help or advice. Her massive denial that she is even pregnant keeps her from seeking prenatal care or making plans for the birth and care of her child. Michelle Oberman, a law professor and a leading authority on neonaticide , describes this state of perpetual delusion...