Back in the late 1980's statements like this were very common "Theirs will be a life of certain suffering, of probable deviance and permanent inferiority." The former director of the National Center on Child Abuse called Crack Babies "a Bio-underclass".
Recently the terms "Meth Babies" and "Ice Babies" have come into vogue.
As usual, we, the public, jumped on the band-wagon. As in "If someone said it, it must be true!" Well as it turns out, it was all a giant load of Bull shit. Cocaine use by a pregnant woman does increase the chances of spontaneous miscarriage or low birth weight. But any later deficits were caused not by crack but by having Crack Heads for parents. Like malnutrition, lack of parental care and poverty. The 1985 study that started all of this was small and since then there have been many, more rigorous studies that dispute the Crack Baby myth.
A group of 96 physicians have circulated a statement proclaiming "The use of terms like "meth babies" and "crack babies" lacks scientific validity and should not be used.
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