Hi Susie,
From what I could find, Massachusetts isn’t among the states that classify drug use by pregnant women as child abuse. You can find a summary of state’s policies here:
http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SADP.pdf
And here:
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/03/6/gr030603.pdf
However, this Masachusetts case addresses the issue:
"Commonwealth v. Pellegrini, No. 87970, slip op. (Plymouth Super. Ct., October 15,1990).Josephine Pellegrini, a twenty-three year-old white woman, from Brockton, was the first woman in Massachusetts to be charged under the state's drug trafficking statute for "distributing" cocaine to her fetus after her infant tested positive for cocaine. Her family and friends describe Pellegrmni as" a battered woman who was terrified of her live-in boyfriend, the father of her three children." In October of 1990, the judge dismissed the drug charges as violating the right to privacy, principles of statutory construction, due process of law, and separation of powers."
The above info is from this website: http://advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/ which may be of interest to you.
I did find several court cases in other states in which women have been prosecuted for their drug use during pregnancy:
Reyes v. Superior Court - Reyes, a California woman gave birth to heroin addicted twins was prosecuted by the under the criminal child endangerment statute.
State v. Black – Black was charged by the state of Florida with delivery of cocaine to a minor.
Whitner v. State - Whitner was charged by the state of South Carolina with child endangerment after cocaine was detected in her newborn’s urine.
