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Pennsylvania mother eats poppy seed bagel, newborn baby seized

M

mimac

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 14, 2009
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The drug war has gone bat-shit crazy.

Pennsylvania mother eats poppy seed bagel, newborn baby seized

The ACLU of Pennsylvania recently filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a couple whose newborn baby was kidnapped by Lawrence County Children and Youth Services (LCCYS) because her mother recklessly consumed an "everything" bagel from Dunkin' Donuts the day before the birth.

Jameson Hospital, where Isabella Rodriguez was born on April 27, has a policy of testing expectant mothers' urine for illegal drugs and reporting positive results to LCCYS, even without any additional evidence that the baby is in danger of neglect or abuse. LCCYS, in turn, has a policy of seizing such babies from their homes based on nothing more than the test result.

Unfortunately for Isabella's parents, Elizabeth Mort and Alex Rodriguez, Jameson sets the cutoff level for its opiate test so low that it can be triggered by poppy seeds, which is why two caseworkers and two Neshannock Township police officers visited their home the day after baby and mother returned from the hospital. LCCYS seized the three-day-old girl and put her in foster care for five days before conceding it had made a mistake.


http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/11/pennsylvania-mother.html
 
She should sue, get some money out of it, I would be very upset the first 5 days of not being able to see my child
 
I'm pretty sure it's far more traumatic to abduct a child and separate her from her mother than it would be to be with her mother if she was on drugs. I hate all government workers....
 
I love the Everything Bagel. It should definitely be schedule I.
 
That's ridiculous. Not just that they set the levels on the test so low, but that they are doing it at all.
Jameson Hospital, where Isabella Rodriguez was born on April 27, has a policy of testing expectant mothers' urine for illegal drugs and reporting positive results to LCCYS, even without any additional evidence that the baby is in danger of neglect or abuse. LCCYS, in turn, has a policy of seizing such babies from their homes based on nothing more than the test result.
Click to expand...
 
^the modern witch hunt
Ason Unique said:
She should sue, get some money out of it, I would be very upset the first 5 days of not being able to see my child
Click to expand...
mother being upset doesn't matter. the child's development does

so, she should get a fuckton of money out of it, with a good portion going to the child at 18........
 
That's so disgusting... She missed the first 5 days of bonding with her baby and will never get that time back. I can't imagine the pain and distress she went through wondering if she'd ever get her child back. I hope she wins her lawsuit and I hope the individuals responsible for separating a loving mother from her child face some consequences.
 
Wow, I am definitely not one to agree with people that are sue happy, but seriously... in this instance I agree with everyone else here, she should sue the shit out of them.

That sounds like a seriously traumatic experience, that absolutely needs to be brought into the light.
 
Honestly Im very against the policy of drug testing mothers automatically. If the baby is healthy and developing just fine and there is no problems, if the mother has been getting adequate prenatal care and is showing a good effort to take good care of herself and the baby, if there aint any issues i dont understand why theres a need to drug test every mother and baby. Its horribly invasive of peoples privacy.

If doctors suspect drug use and have definite symptoms and signs that they can document thats one thing. But imagine you smoke a little weed a couple times during your pregnancy to deal with horrible morning sickness (which by the way, lasted for me up til like 2 months ago, and im 8 mos now) or the aches and pains that the baby puts on your body...and light occasional marijuana use has no negative effect on the baby, i have read so much about that subject when i was younger and didnt know iw would be on probation when i was pregnant...so it aint something that hurts the baby at all, but then you go have your baby and test dirty for weed when you have the baby and now dyfs is all up in your shit even tho you been taking perfect care of your baby and yourself and doing everything that you should do and more. Its so fucked up to me, i cant stand the fact that they do this.

Not only that but those type of policies just encourages mothers who are positive for drugs to avoid delivering at a hospital to avoid the authorities and making it even MORE dangerous for their child. its so fucked up this system they got, it pisses me off so much. Im on methadone , prescribed, NOT for addiction but as pain management, and i was told by a few people that dyfs might take my baby away when i had him becuz i had methadone in my system. that the hospital automatically notifies them anytime there is a positive test for drugs, even if they are prescribed. Which is bullshit, becuz i guarantee that if a doctor had gave me percocet for a wisdom tooth or something a few weeks before my delivery, they wouldnt say shit to nobody, but being on methadone, even tho it AINT for addiction treatment, is such a stigma that they automatically want to treat me like a fuckin drug addict and get up in my life.

fortunately the hospital im goin to dont follow that policy and they already talked to me about that and said they dont see no reason to report it so there aint gonna be a problem when i do have my little son but the fact that anybody would even have to deal with that in the first place is so fucked up. Im willing to bet it harms more people than it helps. the really fucked up people who aint taking proper care of their baby cuz they out on the streets addicted and shit, they will just have their baby at home to avoid the drug testing and authorities and make the situation worse.
 
I agree with lacey's post. It is good hearing these things from a pregnant woman.

Poor baby.
Poor parents.
They might get money, but they lost days 3-8 with their baby. Those days cannot be replaced.
The also had to worry that they would not be allowed to see their baby again. That worry would be beyond sickening.
A million dollars would not make up for causing that harm to the family.
 
Still, this is no worse than than jack ass sherriff in AZ who chained an 'illegal' to a hospital bed and wouldn't let her hold her new born child, threatening to put it into state custody.

Fuck you joe arpaio
 
Victory for Woman Whose Newborn Baby Was Taken Away After Poppyseed Bagel Caused Positive Drug Test

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/new-mother-who-failed-drug-test-due-poppy-seed-bagel-gets-baby-back

A Pennsylvania woman whose newborn baby was taken away after she tested positive for opiates (thanks to eating a poppy-seed bagel) has won a victory in court. Represented by the ACLU, Elizabeth Mort won $143,500 from Lawrence County's child welfare agency and Jameson Hospital.

Mort says that, in October 2010, the day after she took her baby daughter home from the hospital, cops and social workers showed up at her home and snatched her newborn away. Mort had eaten a poppy-seed bagel shortly after arriving at the hospital where she gave birth, causing the positive drug test that separated a new mother from her infant for five days before authorities decided there was not enough evidence to hold the child.

Mort's suit alleges that: Jameson Hospital has a lower threshold for drug screening than federal guidelines (300 nanograms per milileter compared to the standard 2,000 nanograms), did not ask Mort if she had eaten anything that might affect the results, and failed to notify her that she tested positive. The ACLU says the hospital and Lawrence County are changing policy so that health authorities will use the infant's first bowel movement, not the mother's urine, to determine maternal drug use. Even so, drug screenings can be inaccurate, and the removal of newborns from their mother's care should not be taken lightly. According to the AP, another woman is suing the same county for placing her newborn in foster care for a stunning 75 days after she tested positive for opiates -- again from poppy seeds, but this time in a salad dresing.

Still, poppy is not the only substance that causes false positives in drug tests. Even ingredients in many baby soaps and shampoos (Johnson & Johnson, Aveeno, and CVS brands) can produce false positives for marijuana in newborns. The science of drug-testing mothers, as well as their infants, is not exactly clear-cut, but the consequences for a positive drug test are swift and severe regardless.

Adding to the injustice, not all women are equally subjected to the possibility that they may have their newborn baby removed from their custody. Mothers and infants are drug-tested at birth at the discretion of the hospital in which they deliver, but the hospitals that run these tests tend to be public facilities in low-income areas. Many women are not even aware that they have been subjected to these tests. Unsurprisingly, a recent study found that, even after controlling for other factors like health insurance, "black women and their newborns were 1.5 times more likely to be tested for illicit drugs as non-black women."

cont. http://www.alternet.org/drugs/new-mother-who-failed-drug-test-due-poppy-seed-bagel-gets-baby-back
 
Great that she got some money out of this!
$30,000 per day for the 5 days she missed out on her child's life is even somewhat reasonable.

Ho-Chi-Minh said:
would not like to test an infant's first bowel movement
Click to expand...

They actually don't smell bad at all until they begin to eat food.
 
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