Newspaper Page Text
8A Saturday, December 29, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
NATION/WORLD
PA court: Drug use in pregnancy isn’t child abuse
BY MARK SC0LF0R0
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsyl
vania’s highest court ruled Friday
that mothers who use illegal drugs
while pregnant cannot be consid
ered perpetrators of child abuse
against their newly born children
under the state’s child protection
law.
The Supreme Court’s main
opinion said the law’s definition
of a child does not include fetuses
or unborn children, and victims
of perpetrators must be children
under the Child Protective Ser
vices Law.
“The fact that the actor, at a
later date, becomes a person
who meets one of the statutorily-
defined categories of ‘perpetrator’
does not bring her earlier actions
— even if committed within two
years of the child’s bodily injury
— under the CPSL,” wrote Justice
Christine Donohue.
Two justices who dissented said
what should matter is when the
injury shows itself, and that can be
after the child is born.
“The facts in this matter more
closely resemble neglect cases
where the injury manifests at some
point in time after the neglect as
in cases of malnourishment from
lack of food, or suffering from a
severe diaper rash from failure to
routinely change diapers,” wrote
Justice Sallie Mundy, joined by
Justice Debra Todd.
The case involves a girl who
spent 19 days in Williamsport Hos
pital last year after she was born,
being treated for drug depen
dence that caused severe with
drawal symptoms. Her mother
had relapsed into drug use after
getting out of jail, and two weeks
before the girl was born in January
2017 the mother tested positive for
opiates, marijuana and benzodiaz
epines, Donohue wrote.
While her daughter was hospital
ized, Donohue wrote, the mother
did not check in on her or stay with
her.
Clinton County Children and
Youth Services was granted pro
tective custody. In May 2017, the
county judge determined the law
did not provide for a finding of
abuse for what occurred before the
girl was born.
The Clinton County child wel
fare agency argued that a finding
of child abuse would help protect
other children if the mother were
to become pregnant again.
The mother’s lawyer, David S.
Cohen, called the decision a vic
tory for public health and the
rights of women and children.
“There are many states that
have decided by statute to label
this type of behavior child abuse,
but the majority do not,” Cohen
said Friday. “We think that’s the
right way to approach this, because
this is a health issue and the worst
thing you can do with a health issue
is punish people. It drives people
from treatment and it results in
worse outcomes for everyone.”
The National Conference of
State Legislatures has said the
question of how to handle the expo
sure of unborn children to illegal
drugs has been a challenge for
states, raising issues of how to keep
families together and cope with the
strain on the foster care system.
A phone message left for the
lawyer for Clinton County Children
and Youth Services was not imme
diately returned.
The decision overturns Superior
Court, which had ruled a county
judge erred in deciding the moth
er’s drug use did not qualify as
child abuse.
Superior Court Judge Geoffrey
Moulton wrote a year ago that a
mother’s substance abuse while
pregnant “may constitute child
abuse” if authorities can prove she
“intentionally, knowingly, or reck
lessly caused, or created a reason
able likelihood of, bodily injury to
a child after birth.” Moulton wrote
the word “after” in boldface.
If the woman had been deemed
a perpetrator, that would have
put her on a lifetime registry and
would have affected her employ
ment and ability to volunteer
around children, Cohen said. It was
not a criminal matter.
Cohen said his client does not
have custody of her daughter.
Syrian troops enter Kurdish city after US withdrawal notice
BY NABIH BULOS
Associated Press
AMMAN, Jordan — Syr
ian army units on Friday
were reported to have
entered Manbij, a Kurdish-
controlled city that has
become a major flashpoint
in the country’s civil war and
an operating base for hun
dreds of U.S. troops.
The government’s entry
came at the request of Kurd
ish militias, who were con
cerned about the imminent
threat of attack by Turkey in
the wake of President Don
ald Trump’s abrupt order
last week to withdraw all
U.S. troops from Syria.
In a televised address Fri
day morning, Syrian mili
tary spokesman Brig. Gen.
Ali Mayhoub announced
“the entry of units of the
Syrian Arab Army to Manbij
city and the hoisting of the
Syrian Arab flag.”
The move, he said, was in
response to calls from locals
in the city.
Manbij, some 20 miles
from Syria’s northern
border with Turkey, has
become a strategic prize
for powers competing over
Syria’s contested northern
region, including Turkey,
the U.S., the Kurds as well as
the Syrian government itself.
Until Friday, it was the
Kurdish militia known as
People’s Protection Units,
or YPG, that was in control
inside the city and running
joint patrols alongside U.S.
and French troops.
Outside lies the Turkish
army, which for the past
few days has been massing
its forces, along with Syrian
opposition factions trained
and supported by Turkey for
an incursion into Manbij.
And this past week the
Syrian military, including its
elite Tiger Forces units, had
mobilized toward the city,
according to Syrian news
outlets and activists.
It was unclear if U.S.
forces were still in the city.
Earlier Friday, the YPG
issued a statement saying it
had withdrawn from Manbij
to focus on “fighting Islamic
State and other groups east
of the Euphrates.”
“Therefore we invite the
Syrian government, to which
we belong in land, people
and borders, to receive these
areas and protect Manbij
against Turkish threats.”
Activists on social media
uploaded a number of videos
showing government troops
atop pickup trucks on the
edge of Manbij.
A number of sources,
including pro-government
journalists as well as inhab
itants in the city, denied that
government forces were
in the center of Manbij, but
instead had remained in and
near its outskirts, acting as
l
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HUSSEIN MALLAI Associated Press
Syrian citizens walk in front of buildings that were destroyed
during the battle between the U.S.-backed Syrian
Democratic Forces fighters and Islamic State militants, in
Manbij, north Syria, March 31.
a buffer against a Turkish
attack.
The joint task force led
by the United States issued
a statement that seemed
to cast doubt on the claims
of Syrian forces arriving in
Manbij. “Despite incorrect
information about changes
to military forces in the city
of Manbij, Syria, CJTFOIR
has seen no indication that
these claims are true,” the
statement from the Com
bined Joint Task Force —
Operation Inherent Resolve
said.
Meanwhile, Turkish Presi
dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan
downplayed the Syrian gov
ernment’s deployment in
Manbij, saying that Damas
cus was running “a psycho
logical operation” in the
city. Turkey has long fought
an insurgency by Kurds in
its country led by the Kurd
istan Workers Party, known
by the initials PKK, and
regards the YPG in Syria to
be a branch of that group,
despite its denials. The
Kurds have sought an inde
pendent country in a region
that overlaps Turkey, Syria
and Iraq, although the YPG
has stressed its allegiance
to Syria.
“Turkey’s goal is to teach
the YPG/PKK terror group
a lesson, and we’re deter
mined to make that happen,”
said Erdogan, according to
a report from state news
agency Anadolu. “We are
against the partitioning of
Syria. Our goal is terrorist
groups leaving there. If they
leave, then there is no job
left for us.”
U.S. support for the YPG,
which it considers to be a
vanguard in the fight against
Islamic State, has been a fre
quent source of tension with
Turkey.
Over the last few years,
Washington has lavished
money and materiel as well
as thousands of U.S. troops,
special forces operatives
and contractors to assist the
YPG in pushing out Islamic
State. In announcing the pull
out of U.S. forces from Syria,
Trump declared victory
over Islamic State, although
most military analysts
believe the group still poses
a threat.
As the Kurds clawed
back Manbij and areas east
of the Euphrates River in
2016 from the Islamist radi
cals, they began to create
a de-facto state under U.S.
protection.
Meanwhile, Washington
promised it would remain in
the area to counter the rise
of Islamic State and deny
Syrian President Bashar
Assad as well as his Iranian
ally control over eastern
Syria. It established some 19
bases in the area, according
to activists.
Over the past year the
U.S. has played a hot-and-
cold game with Turkey,
mollifying Erdogan with a
so-called “Manbij roadmap”
that would see joint Turk-
ish-U.S. patrols replace the
Kurdish forces. At the same
time, Washington assured its
Kurdish allies it would not
abandon them to a Turkish
onslaught.
Earlier in December,
Erdogan accused the U.S.
of stalling, and began prepa
rations for an operation to
expel the Kurds from the
city.
Yet one phone call earlier
this month between Erdo
gan and Trump, followed by
Trump’s surprise announce
ment of a U.S. withdrawal
that would give Turkey a
greater role in countering
Islamic State in eastern
Syria, upended the calcula
tions of all those involved
in the country’s devastating
civil war.
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Rev. Milton Harris, Academic Dean
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