At Least 70,000 Newborn Drug-Test Cases Sent to Police in 21 States, Investigation Finds

Washington — Child welfare agencies in 21 states referred at least 70,000 cases involving alleged drug use during pregnancy to police or prosecutors over six years, often based on hospital drug screens that can flag prescribed medications and legal products, according to a Marshall Project investigation. In the 15 states that shared outcomes, about 22,000 of those cases were found not to involve child abuse or neglect at all.

The investigation, by reporters Shoshana Walter and Jill Castellano and published with CBS News, Mother Jones and Reveal, drew on a year of federal and state data requests. The reporters said the true number is significantly higher because many states could not or would not provide complete figures.

A screen is not a diagnosis

Most hospital tests at delivery are urine screens. According to the investigation, they are easy to misread, cannot show how often or how recently a substance was used and in most cases cannot tell marijuana apart from legal CBD. Without a confirmation test and medical review, a positive result can turn into a child abuse report.

The reporting documented positives traced to an acid reflux medication that registered as methamphetamine, fentanyl given in an epidural, methadone prescribed for addiction treatment, ADHD medication and pain medication given during labor. In Georgia alone, more than 3,000 reports from 2018 to 2024 involved prescribed medications. Child welfare workers declined to investigate those for abuse but still forwarded them to police, the Marshall Project found.

Thirteen states send every report to police

Federal law requires states to refer substance-exposed newborns for services and a plan of safe care. Experts told the Marshall Project the law does not require a criminal response. Even so, 13 states automatically share all such reports with law enforcement. Oklahoma had the highest rate, about one referral for every 24 births. Michigan, by contrast, shares fewer than 1% of reports, and Illinois ended its police-notification requirement in 2024.

[The law] does not call for any criminal justice response.

Nancy Young, executive director, Children and Family Futures, to The Marshall Project

The consequences are real. In Oklahoma, armed deputies took two children from a mother after a methamphetamine false positive linked to acid reflux medication she received in the hospital, the investigation reported. In South Carolina, Ayanna Harris-Rashid was handcuffed, strip-searched and held overnight in 2021 after she and her newborn tested positive for marijuana from legal CBD gummies and a hemp ointment; the felony neglect charge was eventually dropped. In Virginia, after a couple asked for a lawyer during a child welfare interview, an officer threatened arrest unless they surrendered their newborn. The mother had tested positive for prescribed methadone.

This represents an incredibly regressive and counterproductive approach.

Dana Sussman, senior vice president, Pregnancy Justice, to The Marshall Project

Questioned in the recovery room

Officers often question women while they are still recovering from childbirth and sometimes while on labor medications, and attorneys told the reporters that Miranda warnings are typically not given. At the Loris Police Department in South Carolina, officers declined to file charges in six of 11 cases received in 2024 because of faulty test results. In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a South Carolina public hospital violated patients’ privacy by drug testing pregnant women for police without consent. Some attorneys argue that reasoning should apply to child welfare agencies too.

The pattern behind the numbers

A single unconfirmed screen at the most vulnerable moment of a parent’s life can open a CPS case, a police file and a separation from a newborn. Agencies rarely correct the record when the result turns out to be a prescription. The problem is not a shortage of investigators; it is a policy of treating every positive screen as evidence and passing it along without checking. FAN has documented similar cases involving disputed lab results, and parents who are flagged at birth should know their rights when CPS opens an investigation, including asking for confirmation testing.

Key facts

• At least 70,000 pregnancy-related substance cases referred to police or prosecutors in 21 states over six years
• About 22,000 referred cases in 15 states were found not to involve abuse or neglect
• 13 states automatically share all such reports with law enforcement; Oklahoma has the highest rate, about 1 per 24 births
• Georgia: more than 3,000 referrals from 2018 to 2024 tied to prescribed medications
• Idaho: more than 1,000 mothers referred for marijuana use, including topical CBD products
• Illinois dropped its police-notification requirement in 2024; Michigan refers fewer than 1% of reports
• Pregnancy Justice counted more than 1,800 pregnancy-related arrests and prosecutions from 2006 through 2024

Sources

• The Marshall Project — Tens of Thousands of Mothers Were Flagged to Police Over Flawed Drug Tests at Childbirth (2026-02-10)
• North Carolina Health News (republished from The Marshall Project) — Tens of thousands of mothers were flagged to police over flawed drug tests at childbirth (2026-02-21)

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