Mary Faith Marshall

The Medical University of South Carolina’s policy of screening pregnant women for drug use as part of prenatal care is racist, Mary Faith Marshall asserts in the following viewpoint. According to Marshall, the policy targets substance use by lower-class minorities, who are more likely to use cocaine, while ignoring alcohol and drug abuse among wealthier white females. She claims that black women are more likely to be reported for drug use than their white counterparts and that such discrimination is indicative of other coercive obstetrical policies. Marshall is a professor of medicine and bioethics at Kansas University Medical Center in Lawrence.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What did the South Carolina Supreme Court rule in State of S.C. v. Whitner?
2. According to Marshall, why are poor...