Tennessee lawmakers want to expand a law created amid controversy last year that allows women to be criminally
charged for harming their newborns by abusing pain pills during pregnancy.
Confronting a growing wave of babies born to addicted mothers, the state has scrambled to respond. After passing measures to count cases and to encourage women to get treatment, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to try a criminal penalty — misdemeanor assault — against moms who give birth to drug-dependent babies.
A new proposal — up for votes this week in the House and in a Senate committee — would add methamphetamine to the list of drugs that could trigger arrests.
But opponents say prosecuting moms who use meth, in particular, would set off a slew of unintended complications. Doctors and treatment specialists said common pregnancy drugs can create “false positive” tests and warned that the effects on newborns aren’t the same as with prescription narcotics, which hospitals have been required to track since 2013.
The meth concerns are on top of arguments held during prior debates charging that the threat of prosecution drives women away from treatment, and that lawmakers don’t understand the science of addiction and haven’t done enough to monitor the prosecutions they made possible.
But the House sponsor of the measures, Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, R-Lancaster, said predictions that “the sky’s gonna fall” haven’t materialized.
“I don’t believe for a minute that (continue reading)