Bill helps addicted moms

Karen McNeil, Eads

In response to the April 16 letter “Moms, babies will suffer”: There are others of us working on behalf of pregnant mothers who are delivering addicted babies who have worked closely with the district attorney general’s office to pass the born addicted bill.

We are relieved that Amy Weirich’s office has the courage to help addicted mothers do the right thing by insisting that they get clean before they go home with their newborn babies.

If offering only maternity care, addiction treatment and neonatal care to addicted women was effective, we wouldn’t be looking at more than 800 babies being born each year in our state addicted to drugs. Addicted mothers don’t take advantage of any of those programs; that is the problem. As one told me: “I only hear my drugs talking!” They don’t make plans for maternity care, addiction treatment and neonatal care. They only make plans for their next fix.

Further, there is no evidence that they would avoid prenatal care or procure abortions because they would be afraid of being arrested if their babies are born addicted. That is fear mongering at its worst.

It is disappointing that organizations that say they care about addicted mothers would misrepresent this law and call it something it isn’t — the pregnancy criminalization law. SB1295/HB1391 only applies to mothers whose babies are already born and who need to be forced to get help so they can be sober enough to take care of their children.

Gov. Bill Haslam should listen to the mothers who were in the Born Addicted program who begged for it to be reinstated, not to those who are only interested in “expanding programs” and continuing the insanity that acts as though it’s OK for babies to suffer from their mothers’ addictions.