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US pledges better protection for babies born to addicts

BMJ 2016; 352 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i1679 (Published 22 March 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;352:i1679
  1. Owen Dyer
  1. Montreal

The US federal government has promised a congressional committee that it will “take a more proactive approach” to enforce a 2003 law requiring states to report and protect drug affected newborns.

The Committee on Education and the Workforce launched a probe into failures to follow up neonates treated for opioid abstinence syndrome, after an investigation by the Reuters news agency last year found that the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act was being widely ignored by hospitals and state child protection agencies.1

The Reuters investigation reported over 110 deaths among children released from hospital after being treated for …

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