Moms Living Clean comes out of my own experience as a mother who, due do the stigma of unwed pregnancy, unwillingly relinquished my daughter for adoption in 1969. I was in a home for unwed mothers and wondered, “Why can’t there be homes to help mothers keep their children?
Early in 2005, while doing research for a documentary on a program that helps mothers keep their children, I found Regina McKnight’s story on the Rebecca Project for Human Rights website: www.rebeccaproject.org.
In 1999, the South Carolina child abuse law was applied to viable fetuses when McKnight gave birth to a stillborn baby. Five months later, she was arrested, convicted of murder and sentenced to twelve years in prison. In 2003, the US Supreme Court decided not to review her case, allowing the conviction to stand by default. Twenty-seven physicians and advocate organizations provided an amicus brief, showing several other reasons for the still birth besides drugs. The court chose not to take into account, that McKnight had no offer of treatment prior to the birth. That she had two daughters and didn’t know cocaine would hurt her unborn child. Or that the twenty-two year old African American woman had an IQ of 72.
I was outraged by this injustice and instantly decided to make a documentary exposing the impact that the war on drugs has on vulnerable women and children.
Losing my daughter to adoption was nearly devastating. My art saved me. The unacknowledged devastation for a mother who loses custody of her child and is suffering from addiction can lead to a downward spiral.
Moms Living Clean removes the mask of addiction to show the humanity of these women and help turn the tide of stigma and punitive laws levied against them. Moms Living Clean puts a new face on the meth crisis ~ recovery and hope.