Bill To Report Moms Of Babies Addicted To Drugs Clears Panel

BY SETH BLOMELEY
Posted on Friday, March 4, 2005


Women whose illegal drug use caused their babies to be born with health problems would be investigated by the state for possible child abuse under a bill endorsed Thursday by a House committee.

The Judiciary Committee recommended Senate Bill 114, despite concerns that the bill would unfairly punish drug-abusing mothers, that it was unclear as to who would be allowed to report the possible child abuse, and that the bill would lead to women giving back alley births or avoiding prenatal care because they are scared of the state taking their children away.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Tim Wooldridge, D-Paragould, called the criticism unfounded. "Tragically, what we find in the real life out there, most mothers in those situations who are doing drugs in those kind of levels do not seek prenatal care," Wooldridge said. "Typically, their first visit to a hospital is the day they deliver. It's not when our children were born, like when I took pictures of my wife as she got bigger. We need on the front end to find a positive resolution."

SB114 would require the Arkansas State Police Child Abuse Hotline to accept calls regarding babies born with illegal drugs in their systems or ailments that are a result of illegal drug use by the mothers. The bill passed the Senate 30-0 on Feb. 16.

Testifying against the bill, Rita Sklar, Arkansas director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Department of Human Services had estimated that the bill would cost from $6 million to $35 million and require dozens of new employees to investigate and prosecute the cases.

She said the addict mother needs help, not punishment. She recommended that the bill be changed to refer such cases to the Human Services Department's office in each county. That office, she said, could best plan on how to improve the lives of the mother and child. She said the hot line carried the presumption of abuse and would more likely lead to the child being removed to foster care. "Do you think it's abuse to inject methamphetamine into a newborn?" Rep. Timothy Hutchinson, R-Lowell, asked Sklar. "That's not what we're talking about here," Sklar said. "I think that's exactly what we're talking about," Hutchinson said.

Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville, said the bill should be written more narrowly to allow only medical professionals to report the mother to the state police. "Could I report Rep. Hutchinson if I thought his wife was using drugs?" Bond asked.

Sklar said the only way to make the bill fair would be if it required drug testing of all newborns in Arkansas, which doesn't occur now. "That's your wives, your children, your sisters," she said.

She said what's needed is more treatment.

Dr. Whit Hall, a pediatric neonatologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, testified that he favors the bill but has concerns about people unjustly being reported to the hot line. He also wanted more treatment funding. "We've got to somehow differentiate between a mother with some marijuana in their blood that they smoked at seven months or earlier of gestations and [those with] a meth lab in their back yard," Hall said.

He said if all the 37,000 mothers who give birth in Arkansas each year are tested, as many as 3,000 could be reported under the bill. In addition to the investigative costs, the Department of Human Services estimates that it would cost $20 million to give drug-abuse centers the capability to treat the women affected by the bill.


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