<P> The harm to a child from PCE has implications for public policy and law . Some US states have pressed charges against pregnant women who use drugs, including assault with a deadly weapon, corruption of a minor, manslaughter, child abuse, and distribution of drugs to a minor . However these approaches have generally been rejected in the courts on the basis that a fetus is not legally a child . Between 1985 and 2001, more than 200 women in over 30 US states faced prosecution for drug use during pregnancy . In South Carolina, a woman who used crack in her third trimester of pregnancy was sentenced to prison for eight years when her child was born with cocaine metabolites in its system . The Supreme Court of South Carolina upheld this conviction . As of 2013, all but one of the women prosecuted in the US for drug use while pregnant have won their cases on appeal . </P> <P> From 1989 to 1994, in the midst of public outcry about cocaine babies, the Medical University of South Carolina tested pregnant women for cocaine, reporting those who tested positive to the police . The US Supreme Court found the policy to be unacceptable on constitutional grounds in 2001 . Some advocates argue that punishment for crack - using pregnant women as a means to treat their addiction is a violation of their right to privacy . According to studies, fear of prosecution and having children taken away is associated with a refusal to seek prenatal care or medical treatment . </P> <P> Some nonprofit organizations aim to prevent PCE with birth control . One such initiative, Project Prevention, offers women addicted to cocaine money as an incentive to undergo long - term birth control or, frequently, sterilization--an approach which has led to public outcry from those who consider this practice to be eugenics . </P> <P> Children who were exposed to crack prenatally faced social stigma as babies and school - aged children; some experts say that the "crack baby" stigma was more harmful than the PCE . Teachers were affected by these cultural stereotypes; such biases may have negatively affected the educational experiences of children thus stigmatized . Teachers who knew that specific children had been exposed to crack in utero may have expected these children to be disruptive and developmentally delayed . Children who were exposed to cocaine might be teased by others who knew of the exposure, and problems these children had might be misdiagnosed by doctors or others as resulting from PCE when they may really have been due to factors like illness or abuse . </P>

How long does crack stay in a fetus system