Investigated for a Positive Drug Test While Giving Birth? Tell Us What Happened Next.

Filed
6:00 a.m. EST

02.10.2026

Assist our group proceed their reporting on referrals to regulation enforcement for alleged drug use throughout being pregnant by sharing your story.

About 70,000 moms had been referred to regulation enforcement between 2018 and 2023 for allegedly utilizing substances throughout their pregnancies, an investigation by The Marshall Undertaking reporters Shoshana Walter and Jill Castellano revealed for the primary time.

Whereas lots of the sufferers doubtless used illicit medication, 1000’s of others had been referred to police because of constructive exams brought on by prescribed drugs. In some cases, girls had been referred over constructive exams brought on by fentanyl from their epidurals, poppy seeds or frequent over-the-counter drugs.

Civil rights attorneys and girls’s rights advocates warn that these referrals improve the chance extra individuals will face felony penalties given growing surveillance and scrutiny of ladies’s reproductive decisions and outcomes.