Youngstown Daily Legal News

Bill designed to encourage pregnant drug users to seek help

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 29, 2016

By a nearly unanimous vote, lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives have approved Maiden’s Law, a measure that would target expectant mothers who suffer from heroin or opioid addiction for the purpose of encouraging them to seek medical help.

Introduced as House Bill 325, the legislation requires certain health care professionals to encourage pregnant women to seek drug treatment while providing limited protection from civil or criminal liability to those professionals.

Participating expectant mothers would have to enroll in a drug treatment program by the 21st week of a pregnancy, complete successfully — or, at least, be in the process of completing — a program and is in compliance with the program’s terms and conditions as determined by the treatment provider and maintain her regularly scheduled appointments and the prenatal care recommended by her health care provider for the remainder of the pregnancy.

Meeting the guidelines would preclude a children’s services agency from filing a complaint or removing the newborn from the mother on the basis that she had used a controlled substance while pregnant, according to the terms of the bill.

“The impetus for this bill is ultimately to keep mother and child together and to strengthen the family unit through hope against despair,” said one of the bill’s joint sponsors, Republican Rep. Doug Green of Mount Orab. “In doing this, we move toward a system of encouragement by shining light into areas of this state where it has been dark for too long. By encouraging addiction treatment we heal a mother, we heal a family, we help restore communities, we save government money. By keeping families together we strengthen family units, we create conditions for better achievement in school, we keep our economy moving forward. It is my hope that more expectant mothers come forward and seek help.”

During hearings before the House Community and Family Advancement Committee, lawmakers considered concerns about accessibility to treatment and the 20-week deadline for seeking it.

“I have the experience of supervising the care of many pregnant women who have a history of opioid abuse and other drug addictions,” said Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, an associate professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “For many of these women, access to care is limited and they are unable to find available drug treatment programs and prenatal care appointments prior to 20 weeks of gestation.”

He concluded that women who receive drug-addiction treatment and start on methadone as late as the third trimester are still able to avoid dangerous drug exposure and improve neonatal outcomes relative to women who receive no treatment at all.

Rep. Sean O’Brien, D-Hubbard. joined Green as the other joint sponsor of the measure.

House Bill 325 now awaits Senate consideration.

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