I notice a lack of a response to this question.
It is the law. Any health care professional “who knows, or from the child’s symptoms has reasonable cause to suspect, that a newborn infant has any amount of alcohol, a controlled substance, or a metabolite of a controlled substance in his or her body shall report to the department”. And the Department of Health Services is mandated to investigate all such reports.
How would the know without testing?
I wonder how selectively this is enforced.
Why not give birth in a less invasive state?
The people who must report at the risk of their jobs and careers are called, wait for it, Mandatory Reporters.
It is a long list of just about everyone involved with young people at all. Here is a summary list.
But that sounds like a “probable cause” type thing. The OP seems to insinuate every kid get’s tested no matter what.
It would be pretty extraordinary if MI hospitals were testing every baby, rather than those for which they have some basis for reasonable suspicion. You sure that isn’t just a rumor, Nzinga?
If a mother asks her doctor about the dangers of smoking marijuana while she’s pregnant or nursing, the doctor now has reasonable cause to suspect that the woman is smoking marijuana and the foetus/newborn had some amount of marijuana in its body. And that doctor is now legally bound to report her.
This is one of the reasons this is a bad law; it discourages women from seeking medical help if they have a substance abuse problem because that attempt to seek help can be used against them.
Ok! I as on my phone before and couldn’t type.
First of all, thank you everyone for your responses. I appreciate it.
I don’t know that it’s not a rumor, Richard. But my friend who lives in Michigan really seems scared and she is totally convinced that that is the law in her state.
I hope you all are right. This is her first kid. I don’t know her in real life, I only know her from facebook, but I really like the kid and told her I would find some solid feedback for her. She said googling only confused her. I’m pretty bad at googling things too, as dumb as that sounds.
But yeah, thanks guys. You all be smart as hell. That’s why I ask questions here. Peace out.
It’s a scary topic. I would be scared to ask the hospital for fear that they would use the question as a basis for reasonable suspicion. And I wouldn’t necessarily rule out that some hospital somewhere is testing all the babies.
Theoretically, a state-run hospital would be less likely to do so, because the constitutional claim would be much stronger against them. Not sure if that’s helpful as a practical matter or not.
I’m with this guy/gal. Scary, stupid times we live in. Holy Jesuz batman people, its a little bit of weed. I agree that parents of young children should not imbibe when those children are in their immediate care, for obvious reasons, but this is much too far. I would suggest to the OP’s friend that she move out of her current state, and into one with a bit of common sense.
Assuming of course this is not some kind of whoosh?
Gee life in the States doesn’t sound like I imagined it. Maybe she can hide out with the Gies family