"Neither the state nor the anti-smoker industry owns our children"

Further to my previous post, Pat Nurse has written an article on the subject of smoking and pregnancy for The Free Society.

Pat writes:

The media needs to get a grip and realise that a parent’s worth doesn’t start and end with whether they enjoy one legal product over another – a product, incidentally, enjoyed by many generations before them who had healthy happy babies ...

Anti-smokers would do well to stick to the core message that smoking CAN be harmful to unborn babies because that is a message that resonates. Going off the scale into fantasy phobia land makes ideological health campaigners look like laughing stocks that no one heeds ...

The bottom line is women own their own bodies. Neither the state nor the anti-smoker industry owns our children and this judgemental and negative approach to force them to quit a legal product will only result in the alienation of those women who need healthcare, compassion and support the most.

See: Alienating and criminalising pregnant women (The Free Society)

H/T Chas for posting a link to Pat's appearance on Five Live Breakfast this morning. Click here and go to 1.24.00.