Opioids are commonly prescribed to women of reproductive age despite birth defect risk, US CDC study shows

Although opioids are associated with serious birth defects, more than a third of US women of reproductive age who are enrolled in Medicaid and more than a quarter of those with private insurance fill in a prescription for opioid pain drugs each year, a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shown.1

Half of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, the researchers noted, and many may go unrecognized during the …