S3 – Legislative Forum: Criminalization of Pregnant Women with Substance Use Disorders

Spurred by the skyrocketing number of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), the state of Tennessee enacted a law in 2014 that explicitly criminalizes drug abuse while pregnant. The Tennessee law, along with a recent court ruling in Alabama that allows pregnant women to be prosecuted under a law intended to deter people from bringing children to places where controlled substances are produced or distributed, such as methamphetamine laboratories, raise questions about the possible policy proposals that states have begun to identify to address NAS. Learn about various policy proposals and what states are doing to address the rising costs of care and the growing NAS population.