In the last decade, a growing number of pregnant women in the United States have been investigated and/or charged with transmitting drugs to a minor, that is to say, to the fetus they are carrying. This wave of criminalization procedures, in some cases translated into legislative measures, essentially involves indigent women from minority groups. Far from achieving the announced objective of improving fetal and newborn health, these punitive policies have had the adverse effect of forcing women who need both drug treatment and prenatal care to go into hiding.