They put me in handcuffs and shackles and put me in a wheelchair and took me to jail. Eleven years later, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether testing pregnant women for drugs and reporting the results to police violates the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches. The justices' decision, expected next year, could determine whether other hospitals can adopt similar practices. The South Carolina attorney general contends such programs help prevent babies from being born addicted. The state has used its child-endangerment law to prosecute pregnant women who use drugs, and South Carolina doctors must report as child abuse drug use by women late in pregnancy.
Opponents say the tests discourage pregnant drug users from seeking prenatal care.
This would give a new power of coercion. Griffin was a patient at the public Medical University of South Carolina, where officials in 1989 decided to help prosecutors battling the crack epidemic. If a woman's urine test indicated cocaine use, she was reported to police and arrested for distributing the drug to a minor. In 1990, the policy was changed to give drug-using patients a choice between arrest and treatment. But 10 women sued the hospital, saying tests performed without court warrants violate the Fourth Amendment.