NEW YORK, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Across the United States, hospitals are dispensing medications to patients in labor, only to report them to child welfare authorities when they or their newborns test positive for those very same substances on subsequent drug tests, an investigation by The Marshall Project and Reveal, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, has found.
"The positive tests are triggered by medications routinely prescribed to millions of birthing patients in the United States every year," reported USA Today about the finding on Wednesday. "The drugs include morphine or fentanyl for epidurals or other pain relief, anxiety medications, and two different blood pressure medicines prescribed for C-sections."
In a time of increasing surveillance and criminalization of pregnant women since the end of Roe v. Wade, the hospital reports have prompted calls to the police, child welfare investigations and even the removal of children from their parents, according to the report.
Hospital drug testing of pregnant women, which began in the 1980s and spread rapidly during the opioid epidemic, was intended in part to help identify babies who might experience withdrawal symptoms and need extra medical care.
In at least 27 U.S. states, hospitals are required by law to alert child welfare agencies about a positive test or a potential exposure to the baby. But not a single state requires hospitals to confirm test results before reporting them. Hospitals routinely contact authorities without ordering confirmation tests or waiting to receive the results, noted the report.
