Smoking and Pregnancy: The Politics of Fetal Protection

The 1966 edition of the medical textbook states that pregnant women can safely smoke half a pack of cigarettes a day. Yet today, women who smoke during pregnancy are among the most villified figures in public health campaigns. Laury Oaks argues this shift is not due solely to medical findings indicating that cigarette smoking may harm the foetus. Also responsible are a variety of social factors that converged more than a decade ago to construct the demonized category of the pregnant smoker.