Ohio bill aims to help pregnant women get drug treatment

Two Ohio legislators introduced a bill this week aimed at encouraging pregnant women using heroin and opiates to seek treatment (Source: “Bill aims to help pregnant women get drug treatment,” Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 4, 2015).

The bill, introduced by Reps. Doug Green, R-Mount Orab, and Sean O’Brien, D-Bazetta, states that if an addicted mother completes or is almost finished with treatment when her baby is born, child-welfare officials cannot take the child into state custody based on addiction.

Green and O’Brien said they hope the legislation will reduce the number of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.

The number of babies diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome increased by 750 percent in Ohio from 2004 and 2013, according to a report by the state Department of Health.