Make Drug & Alcohol Use During Pregnancy A Crime Of Child Abuse & Neglect (Gabbys' Law)
- Target:
- The Govenment of The Republic Of South Africa
- Region:
- South Africa
I work with Cape Town Child Welfare as a Safety Mother. Today I received a 2 week baby girl, born to a Tik addicted mother. She is underweight, under developed and will no doubt have serious medical and learning problems her whole life. She is child number 6 from her birth mother, and has an 18 month old sibling who cannot walk yet, due to their mothers Tik use during her pregnancy with him. This baby is due to be adopted now, as the birth mother has decided she cannot cope with a 6th child. She is still taking drugs and was not sterilised in hospital.
In the Western Cape, an average of 10 babies a day are born to Tik addicted mothers. Approximately 6% of babies country wide are born drug addicted. With approximately 70 000 births in The Western Cape every year, this would mean at least 4 200 of these babies are exposed to tik. And that’s only in one province
South Africa holds the record of having the highest percentage, 8% -12%, of babies in the world born with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), The Western Cape alone has approximately 25% of its babies being subjected to this unnecessary cruelty. with the USA being second place at 0.1%-3%, a huge difference between the two.
The state, funded through US, the tax payers, picks up the cost of the problems created by this behaviour. Hospitals, clinics, SASSA, welfare, low cost housing, social workers, etc, is all paid for by us, and a huge burden can be relieved if this unnecessary cost is prevented.
It is time that this abuse of our most innocent and venerable members of society stops. It can 0nly stop if we make it stop, and do not accept it any longer.
We, the undersigned, call upon The Government of the Republic Of South Africa to amend the Childrens Act and any other relevant law, to now make the taking of illegal drugs and alcohol during pregnancy a convictable crime, punishable by law.
We ask that the child born from the pregnancy be removed from the birth mother and placed in safety care, until such time that the birth mother has completed a court appointed drug or alcohol rehabilitation period in a state facility. Once the child and mother are reunited, we ask that the mother be required to submit herself to monthly drug screening and remain clean of illegal drugs for a minimum of at least 2 years from leaving the rehabilitation facility.
We ask that a register of names be kept and made available to interested parties, until the birth mother has passed all drug screening periods and has attained a drug & alcohol adiction free life.
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The Make Drug & Alcohol Use During Pregnancy A Crime Of Child Abuse & Neglect (Gabbys' Law) petition to The Govenment of The Republic Of South Africa was written by Kate Khan and is in the category Children's Rights at GoPetition.