Filed
6:00 a.m. EDT
04.25.2025
The reporting uncovered the influence of widespread drug testing on pregnant individuals.
Susan Horton helps her youngsters throughout playtime of their house in Cotati, California, in July 2024.
The Marshall Mission has been honored as a finalist for the 2025 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for its collaborative sequence revealing widespread drug testing of birthing sufferers in hospitals throughout the nation and its unfavorable penalties. This investigative work, produced in partnership with Reveal, Mom Jones and USA At present, was spearheaded by reporter Shoshana Walter, with contributions from Marianne McCune and the workers of The Marshall Mission and Reveal.
The sequence uncovered how hospitals administer unreliable drug exams to birthing sufferers, resulting in unwarranted youngster welfare interventions. In lots of circumstances, moms had been reported for constructive exams triggered by the drugs the hospitals themselves gave them throughout labor. The investigation started with the story of a mom whose constructive methamphetamine take a look at was falsely triggered by a typical blood stress remedy. Walter uncovered quite a few different circumstances, together with a girl who ate a poppy seed salad that resulted in a false constructive opiate take a look at and the short-term removing of her new child. The reporting highlighted the excessive false-positive charges of urine screens and the ensuing threats many new mother and father face from youngster welfare companies.
Walter carried out in depth interviews with tons of of pregnant individuals and birthing sufferers, examined medical information and filed public information requests to scrutinize drug testing and reporting practices. Her findings revealed that federal authorities have lengthy been conscious of the unreliability of urine screens, but no state has applied safeguards to guard birthing sufferers’ rights. This lack of oversight has led to traumatizing experiences for a lot of households who had been wrongfully accused and separated.
“We’re so happy with Shoshana’s reporting and the influence this work has had, and we’re grateful to the moms who got here ahead to inform their tales,” mentioned Performing Editor-in-Chief Geraldine Sealey. “Accountability journalism that makes a distinction in individuals’s lives is extra essential than ever.”
Due to this investigation many affected ladies have come ahead, and advocacy teams have mobilized for change. The tales have gained legislative consideration, prompting U.S. lawmakers to sentence the follow and search options. Advocacy teams are leveraging the investigation to instigate authorized and coverage reforms throughout a number of states. Inside the medical and youngster welfare communities, the sequence has sparked discussions and initiated efforts to revise present procedures, demonstrating the potential for systemic change prompted by rigorous investigative journalism.
Different Marshall Mission reporters who contributed to this venture had been Weihua Li, Andrew Rodriguez Calderón, Nakylah Carter and Catherine Odom.
The Goldsmith Prize, administered by the Shorenstein Middle on Media, Politics and Public Coverage at Harvard Kennedy Faculty, “honors investigative reporting that greatest promotes simpler and moral conduct of presidency, the making of public coverage, or the follow of politics.” Finalists obtain $10,000, and the winner receives $25,000. This 12 months’s winners had been Katey Rusch and Casey Smith for a collaboration of The San Francisco Chronicle and the College of California Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program that uncovered how California police companies used secret authorized settlements to masks officers’ misconduct. For extra details about the award and to view the complete record of finalists, go to GoldsmithAwards.org.
