Hospitals routinely report parents to child welfare authorities based on error-prone tests. Some hospitals are changing policy as a result. ✍️: Shoshana Walter & 🎥: Chris Vazquez / The Marshall Project Transcript: HOSPITALS: Hey, parents? We’re reporting you to child welfare authorities for positive drug test results, even when it’s from drugs we gave you or when it’s a false positive from something like eating a poppy seed muffin. SOME DOCTORS: What if we didn’t, though? We’ve assumed for decades that we need to drug test pregnant patients. MOST STATE LAWS: But we actually don’t require it. SOME DOCTORS: So a growing number of us are saying that we shouldn’t. We could just communicate with patients to assess any risk to babies. A MEDICAL CENTER NEAR BOSTON: We stopped automatically testing newborns. A CONNECTICUT HEALTH SYSTEM: And we reduced unnecessary reports to child welfare authorities, without an uptick in babies needing drug withdrawal treatment. CHRIS: Why are these reforms happening? HARVARD AND TUFTS RESEARCHERS: Race and class bias can influence drug testing. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN RESEARCHERS: Plus Black, Latine and Indigenous babies are less likely to be reunited with their parents once child welfare authorities remove them. SOME DOCTORS: These drug tests also aren’t typically used to make medical decisions. And they’re not great indicators of whether parents are a danger to their kids. CHRIS: So have these reforms solved all this? A MICHIGAN HOSPITAL NETWORK: Not entirely. Early data shows that our new policy had no impact on racial disparities in testing and reporting. But that could be because of state law… A MICHIGAN STATE LAW: …which makes providers report patients who they think exposed their newborn to any amount of a controlled substance — whether it’s legal or illegal. AT LEAST 26 OTHER STATES: And we have similar requirements.