Pubdate: Tue, 27 Mar 2001
Source: Augusta Chronicle, The (GA)
Copyright: 2001 The Augusta Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.augustachronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/31
Note: Does not publishing letters from outside of the immediate Georgia and 
South Carolina circulation area

A BREAK FOR UNBORNS

The right of the people to be secure in their persons against unreasonable 
searches and seizures is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. So what's 
more unreasonable than having hospitals test pregnant women for drugs 
without their consent and turn the results over to police?

This was permitted under South Carolina law until the U.S. Supreme Court 
rightly struck it down on privacy grounds last week. Such tests require a 
search warrant or consent, the justices said.

The 6-3 decision banning non-consensual drug testing by hospital personnel 
is a welcome affirmation that pregnant women have the same doctor-patient 
confidentiality rights as all Americans.

The tattle-tale testing program, lobbied through the Legislature by state 
Attorney General Charlie Condon in the early 1990s when he was a Charleston 
prosecutor, was designed to protect unborn babies from their drug-addicted 
moms. When confronted with the results of a drug-tainted urine test, 
addicted mothers would almost always opt for prenatal treatment instead of 
going to jail.

At first this appeared to be creative use of the law to protect the health 
of both the unborn and the mother. But experience shows that even on this 
practical level the law failed.

Aiken County Coroner Sue Townsend is well aware of the unintended 
consequences - many crack-addicted babies needlessly dying because their 
mothers, fearful of being arrested and charged with child endangerment, 
refused to seek any prenatal care at all.

In light of the high court ruling, Townsend is optimistic this will change. 
"Our hope now is that these women with drug problems will have no fear of 
prosecution and will get back into prenatal care," she says. "They are not 
going to get their urine screened without their consent."

Aiken County's fetal and infant mortality review board documents Townsend's 
informal findings, that pregnant women's failure to seek prenatal care is a 
leading cause of infant mortality.

Even so, the board has played a key role in lowering the county's infant 
mortality rate from 12.1 per 1,000 live births in 1989 to 7.8 per thousand 
in 1998 (the latest year figures are available). That panel, too, expects 
the court ruling will encourage more moms to get medical help in time to 
save their babies.