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The Invisible Classes in High Stakes Reproduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

The urgent and painful costs of motherhood became strikingly clear, during the spring and summer months of 2014 when Shanesha Taylor, a homeless mother, was arrested for leaving her two children in a parked car, while at a job interview for a Scottsdale, Arizona insurance agency. The single, homeless mother perceived herself as having limited if not desperate options in trying to uplift her family. A new job would have provided more opportunities for her children. Advocates pointed out that she had left the car fan on, windows cracked open, and that it was 71 degrees outside — even though they acknowledged that leaving children alone in cars can be dangerous. Taylor was promptly arrested after completing the interview. A Washington Post reporter remarked that her “mugshot image was a painfully heartbreaking one: a mother, struggling not to cry, tears running down her cheeks.” Months after her arrest, she was finally granted limited visitation with her children. Arizona prosecutors refuse to drop the charges.

Type
Symposium
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2015

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References

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