2026年2月10日 / 美国东部时间上午6:00 / CBS新闻
Ayanna Harris-Rashid正坐在床上，新生儿子含着她的乳头吃奶，一只手刷着手机，这时电话响了。警方因她涉嫌虐待儿童重罪指控要求她自首。
哈里斯-拉希德于2021年3月生下第三个孩子。怀孕期间为缓解疼痛和频繁恶心，她使用了合法的CBD软糖和含大麻成分的外用软膏。但在医院，她和婴儿的大麻检测呈阳性，促使医疗人员向南卡罗来纳州社会服务部提交报告，该部门又将信息转发给警方，记录显示。现在一名警官要求哈里斯-拉希德自首。
哈里斯-拉希德向孩子和丈夫告别。”对不起”，她轻声对新生儿说。一位朋友开车送她到警长办公室，她被戴上手铐、进行全身搜查，并在寒冷拥挤的牢房里过夜。第二天早上离开监狱时，她的乳汁减少，发现无法再母乳喂养。指控最终被撤销。
“他们把我脱得精光，让我感觉极其不体面和不人道”，她说，”我是一个人，一个女人，一位母亲，一个真实的个体。这有什么正当理由？”
哈里斯-拉希德经历的事情正在全国各地的女性身上频繁发生。根据《马歇尔项目》首次获得并公布的六年州和联邦数据，在21个州的至少7万起案件中，父母因怀孕期间被指控吸毒而被移交执法机构。在许多情况下，移交始于药物检测结果呈假阳性——有时是由妇女的处方药物引起的。
左图：Ayanna Harris-Rashid与她的第三个孩子Rai。2021年怀Rai时，哈里斯-拉希德使用合法CBD软糖和含大麻成分的外用软膏缓解恶心和疼痛。右图：哈里斯-拉希德分娩后，医院工作人员进行药物检测，她和孩子的大麻检测呈阳性。Kathryn Gamble为《马歇尔项目》拍摄
执法部门追踪的人数远远超过专家此前所知，包括监测所谓”孕期刑事化”的学者和生殖权利组织。即便如此，《马歇尔项目》汇编的数据仍存在显著低估。
“坦率地说，我最初的真实反应是震惊和沮丧”，法律倡导组织”孕期正义”的高级副总裁Dana Sussman表示，该组织统计2006年至2024年间超过1800起与怀孕相关的逮捕和起诉。”这代表了一种极其倒退且适得其反的做法。”
《马歇尔项目》花了一年时间收集和分析移交执法部门的数据。记者首先请求联邦数据，然后要求州儿童福利机构核实数字并提供州政策。总数反映了这些机构与警方或检察官分享的新生儿案件数量。
尽管大多数移交未导致刑事调查，但许多妇女受到逮捕威胁或刑事指控。其他人在医院病房或家中被警方对峙，被迫交出孩子。
- 阅读深度方法：了解《马歇尔项目》如何获取数据及进行分析。
在俄克拉荷马州，根据法院记录和其律师的说法，母亲因检测出冰毒阳性而被武装警长 deputies带走两个孩子，而这一错误结果是由医院在分娩期间给她的抗酸药物引起的。在南卡罗来纳州，警方根据检测到的芬太尼（来自硬膜外麻醉）和大麻阳性结果，讯问了一名母亲。
在弗吉尼亚州，一对夫妇坚持要求律师在场参加儿童福利面试后，一名警官威胁他们如果不交出新生儿就逮捕他们。”我们介入时，就开始起诉人们”，警官在会议录音中告诉父母，”你大约有三秒钟时间。”母亲的美沙酮检测呈阳性（这是用于治疗阿片类药物成瘾的处方药物）。记录显示，父母被迫将新生儿留在医院，警方护送他们离开。
《马歇尔项目》和其他新闻机构此前报道过对怀孕期间被指控吸毒者的起诉。但这项新调查显示，医院、儿童福利机构和执法部门对患者的监视范围比以往所知更广——尽管这些指控的基本证据不可靠、易被误解且有时完全错误。
许多检测阳性的妇女可能确实使用了非法药物。但来自三个专门追踪涉及处方的州的数据显示，数千名新妈妈仅因医生开具的药物而被移交执法部门。
在许多州，即使一些儿童福利机构最终驳回指控或根本不接受报告，仍会向警方移交案件。
《马歇尔项目》获得了15个州关于儿童福利调查结果的数据。在这些州中，超过一半移交执法部门的案件（约2.2万起）被发现不涉及虐待儿童或忽视行为。但警方有时会在儿童福利机构拒绝进一步行动后仍展开刑事调查。
一些州向执法部门移交案件很少。在密歇根州，儿童福利官员仅在特定情况下才向警方移交案件——例如，担心社会工作者安全或指控对儿童造成严重身体伤害。《马歇尔项目》的分析发现，该州不到1%的报告被分享给执法部门。
但根据《马歇尔项目》对50个州政策的审查，13个州的儿童福利机构会自动分享所有此类报告，从明尼苏达州（蓝州）到俄克拉荷马州（红州）均有涉及。在俄克拉荷马州，每24次分娩就有1次移交执法部门，比例高于分析中的任何其他州。
联邦法律要求各州向家庭提供服务，并确保新生儿接触物质的护理计划。专家表示，自动向警方移交所有报告的州远远超出了联邦要求。
“法律并未要求任何刑事司法回应”，帮助儿童福利机构落实联邦要求的非营利组织”儿童与家庭未来”执行董事Nancy Young表示，”从长远来看这无济于事，对婴儿也没有帮助。”
数十年研究表明，怀孕期间使用某些物质可能伤害婴儿。一些非法药物与早产或死产相关，并可能导致婴儿出现戒断症状。长期吸烟和饮酒会导致低出生体重和发育迟缓。但研究表明，惩罚措施无法减少物质使用，反而会导致妇女、新生儿和家庭的健康结果恶化。意识到潜在的长期危害，伊利诺伊州立法者在2024年取消了儿童福利机构必须通知执法部门的规定。
一些州设立了替代方案，为家庭提供服务并避免儿童虐待调查。但其中几个州仍自动向警方移交案件，破坏了专家认为多年来的进步。
“我感到震惊”，俄勒冈健康与科学大学研究孕妇物质使用障碍治疗的教授Deborah Cohen表示，她不知道州当局会将此类患者的报告转发给执法部门。”我不认为这有帮助。”
在俄勒冈州，四年内至少101起案件（约每1594次分娩中有1起）由该州儿童福利机构因涉嫌孕期物质使用向执法部门通报。所有已知案件均移交执法部门。在案件少于10起的年份，为保护个人隐私未提供确切数字。
儿童福利官员表示，该机构将所有虐待报告（包括涉嫌孕期吸毒）移交执法部门。
移交并非总是为了提起刑事指控。在一些州，这是行政常规，所有虐待和忽视报告都需移交。儿童福利机构还会要求警方协助紧急寄养儿童安置，或陪同工作人员进行家庭或医院访问。在许多实行自动移交政策的州，警方或检察官会审查报告并归档。
但孕妇刑事起诉多年来一直在上升，在2022年最高法院推翻”罗伊诉韦德案”的多布斯裁决后大幅增加。在南卡罗来纳州和俄克拉荷马州等反堕胎州，妇女尤其容易受到起诉，刑事调查的决定往往取决于单个警官或检察官的裁量。随着怀孕监测的增加，民权律师和妇女权利倡导者警告称，移交显著增加了更多人面临刑事调查和指控的风险。
“实行自动移交的州使这些州的妇女极易受到伤害”，Sussman表示，”…这打开了大门——即使在法律上没有依据——也可能提起这些起诉。”
药物检测结果问题
数十年来，州和联邦法律要求医院识别受子宫内药物影响的新生儿并通知儿童福利机构。部分出于合规考虑，许多医院定期对患者或婴儿进行药物检测，以检查母亲是否使用过物质。
但这些通常从尿液样本开始的检测容易被误解且经常出错。它们无法显示使用频率或时长。大多数检测无法区分是非法大麻还是合法产品（如CBD产品）导致的阳性结果。未经确认测试和审查，阳性结果往往导致医院指控父母吸毒，即使使用的是处方药物。
一些执法机构可能会进行进一步调查，但许多不会。《马歇尔项目》审查了南卡罗来纳州两个警方机构的记录（该州是起诉孕妇吸毒最积极的州之一），发现超过12名母亲仅因药物检测阳性被逮捕，未对被告进行询问或收集更确凿证据。
其中一个案例是2024年首次怀孕的新手妈妈Maddie（她要求用昵称，因法庭记录已被删除）。她的孕吐严重到无法进水，医生开的Zofran对她无效。”情况很糟糕”，她回忆起对女儿的担忧，”她怎么会没事并健康成长？”
在家人建议下，Maddie尝试大麻软糖，呕吐得到缓解。但分娩后，她和婴儿的THC检测呈阳性。
在南卡罗来纳州和联邦法律中，少量THC是合法的，许多合法CBD产品含有这种成分。Maddie的药物检测未区分她食用的是哪种产品——或摄入量。但医院向社会服务部报告了她。她说自己被禁止母乳喂养，也不能单独与新生儿相处。次月，她因重罪指控”伤害儿童或使儿童处于危险中”被捕。
“我一生从未惹麻烦，从未被捕，什么都没有”，她说，”现在根据州法律，我可能面临长达10年监禁。这对我女儿来说比怀孕期间吃软糖更有害。”
最终，Maddie聘请律师，检察官撤销了指控。
一些执法机构意识到药物检测证据的缺陷。南卡罗来纳州默特尔海滩北部的洛里斯警察局的Lt. Larry Williams表示，至少一半的新生儿报告涉及由假阳性、处方药物或合法大麻产品引发的药物检测。
他说，2024年该部门收到的11起案件中，因检测结果错误（包括合法CBD引发的阳性结果）而不予起诉。该部门还收到因治疗多动症、抑郁症和分娩时止痛的药物引发的阳性报告。
但Williams表示，证明假阳性结果很困难。当调查人员不确定时，该部门通常决定逮捕。
“我们总是倾向于保护婴儿”，他说，认为阳性药物检测足以建立案件。”我的证明标准是，可能性更大吗？是否有足够可能的理由相信你做了这件事？”许多被捕妇女可能实际上没有成瘾问题。Williams说，在被指控的案件中，只有约10%涉及”常客”——有严重药物问题的妇女。
《马歇尔项目》的数据显示，南卡罗来纳州并非唯一移交因处方药物导致的阳性检测报告的州。
在佐治亚州，2018年至2024年间有超过3000起此类报告。州儿童福利工作者未对这些情况展开虐待或忽视调查，但仍移交执法部门。
仅在爱达荷州，就有超过1000名母亲因怀孕期间使用大麻（包括非法大麻和外用CBD油/霜）被指控虐待儿童并移交执法部门。根据针对该州的诉讼披露的记录，这些父母被要求登记在州名单上，被禁止从事某些工作。名单上一名妇女告诉调查人员，她吃了亲戚厨房的一块含有大麻的布朗尼，后来得知该亲戚住在大麻合法的俄勒冈州。另一名妇女在大麻合法的华盛顿州时，因处方药副作用，服用了处方医用大麻。
在允许医用大麻的俄克拉荷马州，妇女因怀孕期间服用处方大麻而被逮捕和起诉。
南卡罗来纳州辩护律师Erin Bailey（曾代表Maddie及其他案件）表示，不应惩罚自行处理问题的妇女。
“正在经历妊娠副作用（这在我们社会中被严重忽视）的妇女，应有权就可能帮助她们的产品做出知情决定”，她说，”监控这些行为是个危险的滑坡，因为许多日常活动（如超速驾驶）也可能对胎儿造成潜在伤害。我怀孕时超速会被逮捕吗？”
创伤性和令人恐惧的遭遇
即使没有刑事指控，警察的出现对刚分娩的人来说也是创伤性和可怕的。
在爱达荷州，所有怀孕期间非法药物使用的报告都被移交执法部门，儿童福利工作者与警方协调调查。警官可以提出刑事指控（如轻罪伤害儿童，最高可判10年监禁），并可在无法官命令的情况下紧急带走新生儿。
被穿制服的警察和可带走新生儿的州工作人员包围，许多妇女觉得别无选择，只能回答问题，尽管她们有权保持沉默。律师和医疗人员表示，一些妇女在分娩药物影响下仍被讯问。爱达荷州峡谷县公设辩护人Brigette Borup律师表示，许多客户不记得与警方的互动。
“当被告知’我们要带走你的孩子’时，之后的一切都无法被吸收”，Borup说，”我常听到这样的说法：’我几乎不记得发生了什么或说了什么。’”
即使妇女确实使用了非法药物，律师称警方的存在可能侵犯患者的正当程序权利。在初步接触中，警官通常不向新父母发出米兰达警告（告知保持沉默的权利），也不披露承认吸毒可能导致被捕的可能性。三位在该州代表妇女参与刑事和儿童福利案件的律师表示，许多妇女不明白自己的回答可能被用作证据。爱达荷州东南部波卡特洛执业的辩护律师Bob Eldredge表示。
“你有武器，穿制服，看起来像蝙蝠侠，母亲在床上本就感到内疚——你很容易让她招供”，Eldredge说，”她们把执法人员当作牧师、传教士、主教，她们会坦白。”
Eldredge表示，为被夺走孩子而情绪低落的客户准备有力辩护很困难。”在这些妇女面前很难不崩溃哭泣”，他哽咽道，”我们所做的太残忍了。”
Ayanna Mizani Harris-Rashid与她的四个孩子：从左至右，Rai Williams（5岁）、Noele Williams（2岁）、Za’Daya Isreal Crutcher（7岁）和Za’Niyah Isreal Crutcher，2025年12月18日摄于爱荷华州爱荷华城家中。照片由Kathryn Gamble为《马歇尔项目》拍摄
《马歇尔项目》获得的全国数据未追踪执法部门对移交案件的处理及是否提起指控。许多妇女甚至不知道自己分娩的隐私细节已被分享给执法部门。
德克萨斯州一家针对孕妇成瘾治疗项目的同伴支持倡导者Michelle Hansford表示，她的一名患者因硬膜外麻醉中的芬太尼检测呈阳性而被报告给儿童福利机构。这让Hansford感到不安，但她不知道报告也提交给了执法部门。
“这会让我担心”，她说，如果她的客户后来与执法部门接触，警官会在她记录中看到该报告，”他们会自动对她有偏见。”
移交可能对全国孕妇产生更广泛影响。
反堕胎活动人士表示，他们希望向美国最高法院提起诉讼，确立胎儿的宪法保护权。针对孕妇怀孕期间吸毒的刑事诉讼已在多个州建立胎儿人格权判例法。加州大学戴维斯分校法学教授Mary Ziegler表示，向执法部门移交阳性药物检测报告有助于建立胎儿作为独立个体享有平等保护的法律依据。
“即便短期内无人采取行动，此类信息的积累也令人担忧”，Ziegler谈及移交执法部门的政策时说，”这根本无助于婴儿，而是关于惩罚怀孕的人。”
此类移交的更广泛合法性仍是个未决问题。2001年，最高法院裁定南卡罗来纳州公立医院未经同意对孕妇进行药物检测并向执法部门分享结果属于侵犯隐私。该裁决未提及儿童福利机构，但一些律师称该裁决应适用于这些机构。
“本质上，儿童福利机构已成为警方的’传递者’”，Sussman说，”…儿童福利机构充当警方代理人，两者之间无区别。”
本文由《马歇尔项目》（一家报道美国刑事司法系统的非营利新闻机构）合作发布。订阅他们的[新闻通讯]，并在[Instagram]、[TikTok]、[Reddit]和[Facebook]上关注他们。
Tens of thousands of mothers were flagged to police over flawed drug tests at childbirth
February 10, 2026 / 6:00 AM EST / CBS News
Ayanna Harris-Rashid was sitting up in bed, her newborn son latched to her breast, one hand scrolling on her phone, when the police called. She was wanted on a felony charge of child neglect.
Harris-Rashid had just had her third child in March of 2021. To ease pain and frequent nausea, she had used legal CBD gummies and a topical hemp-based ointment throughout her pregnancy. But at the hospital, she and the baby tested positive for marijuana, prompting providers to file a report with the South Carolina Department of Social Services, which forwarded the information to police, records show. Now an officer was demanding Harris-Rashid turn herself in.
Harris-Rashid said goodbye to her children and husband. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered to her newborn son. A friend drove her to the sheriff’s office, where she was handcuffed, strip-searched and placed for the night in a cold and crowded cell. By the time she left the jail the following morning, her milk supply had decreased and she found she could no longer breastfeed. The charge was eventually dropped.
“They shook me bare. They made me feel very indecent and inhumane,” she said, adding, “This is a person, a woman, a mother, an actual individual. What justifies this?”
What happened to Harris-Rashid is happening to women across the country with staggering frequency. In at least 70,000 cases in 21 states, parents were referred to law enforcement agencies over allegations of substance use during pregnancy, according to six years of state and federal data obtained and published for the first time by The Marshall Project. In many cases, the referrals began with false positive results from flawed drug tests — sometimes triggered by the women’s prescribed medications.
L: Ayanna Harris-Rashid with her third child, Rai. Harris-Rashid used legal CBD gummies and a topical hemp-based ointment to ease frequent nausea and pain when she was pregnant with Rai in 2021. R: After Harris-Rashid gave birth, the hospital staff administered drug tests, and she and her child tested positive for marijuana. Kathryn Gamble for The Marshall Project
The sheer number of people that law enforcement is tracking is far higher than experts previously knew, including academics and reproductive rights organizations monitoring what they call pregnancy criminalization. Even so, the numbers The Marshall Project compiled represent a significant undercount.
“My initial genuine reaction is, frankly, shock and dismay,” said Dana Sussman, senior vice president of the legal advocacy organization Pregnancy Justice, which counted more than 1,800 pregnancy-related arrests and prosecutions from 2006 through 2024. She added, “This represents an incredibly regressive and counterproductive approach.”
The Marshall Project spent a year collecting and analyzing data on referrals to law enforcement. Reporters began with a request for federal data, then asked state child welfare agencies to verify the numbers and provide state policies. The totals reflect the number of newborn cases that those agencies shared with police or prosecutors.
Although most of those referrals did not lead to criminal investigations, many women were threatened with arrest or criminally charged. Others were confronted by police in their hospital rooms or homes and forced to turn over their children.
- Read an[in-depth methodology]showing how The Marshall Project obtained the data and conducted its analysis.
In Oklahoma, armed sheriff’s deputies took two children from their parents after the mother tested positive for meth, a false result triggered by the acid reflux medication the hospital had given her during labor, according to court records and her lawyer. In South Carolina, police interrogated a mother after she tested positive for the fentanyl from her epidural, as well as marijuana, according to police records.
And after a Virginia couple insisted on having an attorney present for a child welfare interview, a police officer threatened them with arrest if they didn’t surrender their newborn. “When we step in, that’s when we start charging people,” the officer told the parents, according to an audio recording of the meeting. “You got about three seconds.” The mother had tested positive for methadone, the medication prescribed to treat her opioid addiction. The parents were forced to leave their newborn in the hospital and police escorted them out, records show.
The Marshall Project and other news organizations have previously reported on prosecutions of people accused of using drugs during pregnancy. But this new investigation shows a much broader swath of patients being surveilled by hospitals, child welfare authorities and law enforcement than previously known — even while the underlying evidence for those allegations is unreliable, easy to misinterpret and sometimes flat-out wrong.
Many of the women who tested positive likely used illicit drugs. But data from three states that specifically track cases involving prescriptions show that thousands of new mothers were referred to law enforcement based solely on medications their doctors gave them.
In many states, referrals to police occurred even though some child welfare agencies ended up dismissing the allegations, or never accepted the reports in the first place.
The Marshall Project received data from 15 states about the outcomes of child welfare investigations. More than half of the cases referred to law enforcement in those states — about 22,000 — were found not to involve child abuse or neglect. Yet police sometimes launched criminal probes that continued well after child welfare authorities declined to take further action.
Some states are making very few referrals to law enforcement. In Michigan, child welfare officials send cases to police only in very specific circumstances — for example, if there are concerns for a caseworker’s safety or allegations of serious physical harm to a child. Fewer than 1% of reports in the state were shared with law enforcement, The Marshall Project’s analysis found.
But in 13 states, child welfare agencies automatically share all such reports, according to a Marshall Project review of policies in 50 states. They span blue states like Minnesota to red states like Oklahoma, where a case is referred to law enforcement in one out of 24 births, a higher ratio than in any other state in the analysis.
Federal law requires states to refer families to services and ensure that they have plans to care for newborns exposed to substances. States that automatically send every report to police are far exceeding federal requirements, experts said.
“[The law] does not call for any criminal justice response,” said Nancy Young, the executive director of Children and Family Futures, a nonprofit that helps child welfare agencies implement federal requirements. “It doesn’t help in the long run. And it doesn’t help the baby.”
Decades of research suggest that using certain substances during pregnancy may harm the baby. Some illegal drugs are associated with early birth or stillbirth and can cause babies to experience withdrawal symptoms. Chronic use of cigarettes and alcohol can cause low birth weight and developmental delays. But studies show that punishments are ineffective at reducing substance use and can lead to poorer health outcomes for women, newborns, and families. Recognizing the potential for lasting harm, Illinois legislators in 2024 ended the requirement that child welfare authorities notify law enforcement.
Some states have set up alternative responses to offer services to families and steer them away from child abuse investigations. Yet several of these states also file automatic referrals with police, undermining what experts view as years of progress.
“I’m flabbergasted,” said Deborah Cohen, a professor at Oregon Health & Science University who studies the treatment of pregnant women with substance use disorders. Cohen said she had no idea state authorities forwarded reports of such patients to law enforcement. “I do not see how that’s helpful.”
In at least 101 cases, or roughly 1 out of every 1,594 births in Oregon over four years, the state’s child welfare agency notified law enforcement of alleged substance use during pregnancy. All known cases were referred to law enforcement.
Exact numbers were not provided to The Marshall Project in years with fewer than 10 cases to protect the confidentiality of individuals.
Child welfare officials said the agency refers all reports of child abuse, including alleged drug use during pregnancy, to law enforcement.
The referrals are not always made for the purpose of filing criminal charges. In some states, they are a matter of administrative routine, required for any child abuse and neglect report. Child welfare authorities also call police to assist with emergency foster care removals, or to go with a worker on a home or hospital visit. In many states with automatic referral policies, police or prosecutors review the reports and file them away.
But criminal prosecutions of pregnant women have been rising for years, with a significant jump following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade. In anti-abortion states such as South Carolina and Oklahoma, women are particularly vulnerable to prosecution, and the decision to pursue a criminal case often comes down to the discretion of a single officer or prosecutor. At a time of increasing pregnancy surveillance, civil rights attorneys and advocates for women’s rights warn that the referrals significantly increase the risk that more people will face criminal investigation and charges.
“The states that are doing these automatic referrals, that makes the women in those states incredibly vulnerable,” Sussman said. “… It opens the door — even when there’s no basis in law — to actually bring these prosecutions.”
Issues with drug test results
For decades, state and federal laws have required hospitals to identify newborns affected by drugs in the womb and to alert child welfare services. In part to comply, many hospitals routinely drug test patients or babies to check if a mother might have used substances.
But the tests, which start typically with urine samples, are easy to misinterpret and often wrong. They do not show how often or for how long someone may have used drugs. Most tests cannot distinguish between a positive result caused, for instance, by marijuana — illegal in many states — or a legal substance, such as CBD products. Without confirmation testing and review, positive results often lead hospitals to accuse parents of drug use, even if the substance used was a prescribed medication.
Some law enforcement agencies may conduct additional investigations, but many do not. The Marshall Project reviewed records from two police agencies in South Carolina — one of the states most aggressively prosecuting women for pregnancy drug use — and found more than a dozen mothers were arrested solely on positive drug test results, without interviewing the accused or collecting more definitive evidence.
One of those cases was a first-time mom newly pregnant in 2024, who began to experience extreme morning sickness. She asked to be identified by her nickname, Maddie, because her court record has been expunged. Her symptoms were so severe that she could not keep even water down. The medication prescribed to many pregnant women, Zofran, did not work for her. “It was really bad,” she said, recalling her worries for her baby girl. “How is she going to be OK and grow and be fine?”
On a family member’s suggestion, Maddie tried marijuana gummies, which stopped the vomiting. But when she gave birth, she and the baby tested positive for THC.
A small amount of THC is legal under South Carolina and federal law, and many legal CBD products contain the compound. Maddie’s drug test results didn’t distinguish which product she had consumed — or how much. But the hospital reported her to the Department of Social Services. She was barred from breastfeeding, she said, and from being alone with her newborn. The following month, she was arrested on a felony charge of harming her child or placing her at risk.
“I have never in my life been in trouble. I’ve never been arrested. Nothing,” she said. Now she was facing up to 10 years in prison under state law. “That would have been more detrimental to my daughter than me doing gummies pregnant.”
Eventually, Maddie hired an attorney and the prosecutor dismissed the charge.
Some law enforcement agencies are aware of the pitfalls of drug test evidence. At the Loris Police Department, north of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, at least half of the newborn reports involve drug tests triggered by false positives, prescribed medications or legal hemp products, said Lt. Larry Williams.
His department declined to file charges in six of 11 cases it received in 2024 due to faulty drug test results, including positives triggered by legal CBD, he said. The department has also received reports of positive tests caused by medications, such as those prescribed for ADHD, depression and pain relief during labor.
But Williams said it can be difficult to prove a false positive result. When investigators are not sure, the department often decides to make the arrest.
“We always try to err on the side of the baby,” he said, adding that positive drug tests are sufficient enough to build a case. “My level of proof is, is it more likely than not? Is there probable cause enough to believe that you did this?” Many of the women arrested may not actually struggle with addiction. Only about 10% of charged cases involve “frequent flyers” — women with serious drug problems, Williams said.
The Marshall Project data shows that South Carolina is not the only state referring reports of positive tests caused by prescribed medications.
In Georgia, there were more than 3,000 of these reports from 2018 through 2024. State child welfare workers declined to open investigations into abuse or neglect in these instances, yet referred them to law enforcement anyway.
In Idaho alone, more than 1,000 mothers were accused of child abuse and referred to law enforcement for marijuana use during pregnancy, including the illegal drug as well as topical CBD oils and creams, according to records disclosed in a lawsuit against the state. The lawsuit is challenging a requirement that these parents be placed on a state registry, barring them from certain jobs. One woman on the list told investigators that she ate a brownie from a relative’s kitchen that she later learned contained cannabis. The relative lived in Oregon, where marijuana is legal. Another woman had taken prescribed medical marijuana while living in Washington state — where it is legal — because she preferred it over the side effects from a prescription medication to curb nausea.
In Oklahoma, where medical marijuana is legal, women have been arrested and prosecuted for taking prescribed marijuana during their pregnancies.
Erin Bailey, a defense attorney in South Carolina who represented Maddie and others, said women should not be punished for taking matters into their own hands.
“Women who are experiencing the side effects of pregnancy — which are very real and very much diminished by our society — should have the ability to make informed decisions about products that might be able to help them,” she said. Policing these actions is a slippery slope, she said, since many daily activities, such as driving too fast, can also cause potential harm to a fetus. “Am I going to be subject to arrest if I’m speeding while pregnant?”
Traumatic and frightening encounters
Even without criminal charges, a police officer’s presence can be traumatic and frightening for someone who has just given birth.
In Idaho, which refers all reports of illegal drug use during pregnancy to law enforcement, child welfare workers coordinate with the police to investigate. Officers can file criminal charges, such as misdemeanor injury to child, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, and can take a child into emergency custody without a judge’s order.
Surrounded by uniformed officers and a state worker who can take their newborn, many women feel they have no choice but to answer questions despite their right not to do so, attorneys and health care providers said. They added that some women were questioned while still under the influence of medications they received during childbirth. Attorney Brigette Borup, a public defender in Canyon County, Idaho, said many of her clients have no recollection of those interactions with police.
“When they get told, ‘Well, we’re going to remove your baby,’ it’s just — nothing past that point gets absorbed,” Borup said. She added, “The common story I get is, ‘I barely remember anything that happened or anything that was said.’”
Even when women have used illicit drugs, attorneys said the officers’ presence may be a violation of the patients’ due process rights. During those initial encounters, officers don’t typically offer a Miranda warning to new parents that describes the right to remain silent, or disclose the possibility that women may be arrested if they admit to drug use, according to three other attorneys who have represented women in criminal and child welfare cases in the state. Many women don’t realize that their answers could be used against them, said defense attorney Bob Eldredge, who practices in Pocatello in southeast Idaho.
“You’ve got your weapon, your uniform, you look like Batman, the mother is feeling guilty in bed, anyway — you get a confession out of her,” Eldredge said. “They treat law enforcement officers like that’s their pastor, preacher, bishop coming in, and they come clean.”
Eldredge said it’s difficult to prepare a strong defense for clients who are despondent because of the removal of their children. “You have a hard time not breaking down and weeping in front of those women,” he said, choking up. “It’s so cruel what we’re doing.”
Ayanna Mizani Harris-Rashid is pictured with her four children, from left, Rai Williams, 5, Noele Williams, 2, Za’Daya Isreal Crutcher, 7, and Za’Niyah Isreal Crutcher, at their home in Iowa City, Iowa, on Dec. 18, 2025. Photo by Kathryn Gamble for The Marshall Project
The data The Marshall Project obtained nationwide doesn’t track what law enforcement does with the referrals and whether charges were ever filed. Many women may not be aware at all that private details of their childbirths were shared with law enforcement.
Michelle Hansford, a peer support advocate at an addiction treatment program for pregnant women in Texas, said one of her patients was reported to child welfare authorities due to a positive test caused by the fentanyl in her epidural. That disturbed Hansford enough. But she had no idea that the report also went to law enforcement.
“That would worry me,” she said, adding that if her client had a later encounter with law enforcement, officers would be able to see the report on her record. “They’re automatically going to be biased against her.”
The referrals could also have broader repercussions for pregnant people across the country.
Anti-abortion activists have said they want to bring a case to the U.S. Supreme Court to establish constitutional protections for the fetus. Criminal cases against women for drug use during pregnancy have already helped to establish case law for fetal personhood in multiple states. The referrals of positive drug tests to law enforcement agencies could help build the case for recognizing a fetus as a separate person entitled to equal protection, said University of California Davis law professor Mary Ziegler.
“The stockpiling of information like that is concerning, even if no one is acting on it in the near term,” Ziegler said in reference to the referrals to law enforcement. She said the policies do not actually help babies. “It’s literally about punishing people who are pregnant.”
The broader legality of such referrals is an open question. In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that it was a violation of privacy for a public hospital in South Carolina to drug test pregnant patients without consent for the purposes of sharing the results with law enforcement. The ruling did not mention child welfare agencies, but some attorneys said that the decision should apply to those agencies too.
“Essentially, child welfare has become the pass-through,” Sussman said. “… The child welfare agency is acting as an agent of the police. There’s no distinction between the two.”
This article was published in partnership with[The Marshall Project]a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their[newsletters]and follow them on[Instagram]_,[TikTok]_,[Reddit]and[Facebook].
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