A new study from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) finds that states that have fewer female lawmakers tend to pass the harshest laws on alcohol use by pregnant women.

Some states lean toward placing pregnant women in addiction treatment programs if they abuse alcohol, while others have sought to punish and jail pregnant drinkers. "Not only is jail an amazingly severe reaction to alcohol abuse during pregnancy, but substance-abuse treatment programs and prenatal care are almost nonexistent in these facilities," said PIRE's Sue Thomas, Ph.D., the study's lead author. "While few question the serious consequences of alcohol abuse on fetuses, the best way of avoiding them is to provide treatment for the pregnant women rather than lock them up."

The PIRE study found that state legislatures with more female lawmakers tended to pass treatment-oriented legislation, while those with few women tended to favor laws punishing pregnant drinkers and requiring medical staff to report to authorities on women who use alcohol during pregnancy.

"Evidence from this research and the wider women and politics literature suggests that not only does women's presence matter, the greater their presence across legislatures and in each individual legislature, the greater chance that positive approaches to pregnant women's use and abuse of alcohol will be preserved and extended," Thomas said.

The study was published in the UCLA Women's Law Journal.