Change Is Possible: The Law As A Barrier And A Tool

Abstract

It is a central principle for me that change is possible, and that law helps make it happen. However, as advocates and legal advisors for women’s rights, we are constantly forced to confront the limits of the law as a tool for change. Today I will explore where and why the law is not enough, and look at what we can do to move beyond the law and effectively generate the change we want to see. The truth of the matter is that the law can be very inadequate when it comes to the protection of reproductive rights. One example of this includes laws that impose punitive measures on drug use during pregnancy. Last year, Amnesty International worked on a case in Norway involving a woman who is a recovering opiate user.1 The woman was in opiate substitution therapy, which is entirely legal in Norway. She was not under the Norwegian government program, and it is also entirely legal in Norway to be on a privately sponsored opiate substitution program. She was getting her prescription drugs in Belgium, and that is also entirely legal as long as you are under medical supervision, which this woman was. At the same time, Norway’s social services law empowers the state to take anybody into its custody if it feels the person is in imminent danger of doing damage to herself or to a third person, including an unborn child.2 There is no appeals procedure and there is also no definition of risk levels required or of what kind of danger a person must be in for the state to take custody of her. In fact, there is not even a definition of the substance use that could