« The Trial of Lynn Stewart and What it Means | Main | TX Legislature: Prison Plan-Swap beds for Programs »
February 16, 2005
Arkansas: Bill to Report Mothers Who Are Addicted Clears Committee
By Doug Thompson
Arkansas News Bureau, Feb. 15, 2005
LITTLE ROCK - Cases of babies born with an addiction to illegal drugs or health problems arising from the mother's use of an illegal drug would have to be reported to the state as a case of neglect under a bill that received committee approval on Monday.
Senate Bill 114 by Sen. Tim Wooldridge, D-Paragould, was recommended by the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Monday, despite concerns by addiction counselors that the measure might discourage mothers with addictions from seeking needed medical attention.
"My heart wants to support this bill. My head says we have to be careful about the unintended consequences," said David Deere, spokesman for the Pulaski County Community Action Group, a group of counseling and health care professionals. Opening a charge of neglect might scare some expectant mothers away from seeking health care, he said.
The chief witness in favor of the bill was Betty Stahl of Paragould, who had twin grandchildren born with addiction and health-related problems. One did not survive, dying shortly after birth.
"This is not about revenge. This is about other babies who are out there," Stahl told the committee.
As the law stands now, doctors who report babies with addictions and problems related to illegal drug use could be held liable for violating their patients' confidentiality, the committee was told.
"If a child comes into the emergency room with an arm that's been broken by abuse, the doctor has to report that. If a child is born in the delivery room with serious, life-threatening conditions that can never be fully cured, he can't report it," Wooldridge said in an interview after the committee meeting.
Opponents of the bill said there is a wealth of evidence that smoking and drinking during pregnancy causes serious health problems, but there is no similar bill to charge the mothers of neglect in those cases.
Wooldridge and medical experts in support of the bill replied that, according to the best available statistics, 30 percent or more of children are abused in a home where the mother is so seriously addicted to an illegal drug that she continues taking the drugs heavily during a pregnancy. Incidences of abuse in homes where tobacco or alcohol are abused are much less, bill supporters said.
"You're giving them the alternative to either stop using drugs or stop going to get health care," said Rita Sklar, director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Do we really want babies born in homes, alleys and hotel rooms?"
Copyright © Arkansas News Bureau, 2003 - 2005
Posted by lois at February 16, 2005 06:46 PM