By Verónica Bayetti Flores • @veroconplatanos • 10 years ago

Win: Indiana Attorney General backtracks on mandatory drug testing of pregnant folks

Remember last week when Indiana’s Attorney General was suggesting that drug-testing pregnant folks in Indiana was a great idea? Well it seems someone in the Indiana AG’s office has come to their senses, because yesterday his office emailed MoveOn and RH Reality Check to let them know that they are not supporting mandatory drug-testing:

Please allow us to set the record straight. As co-chair of the state’s Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, Attorney General Greg Zoeller spoke on Sept. 9 to the Indiana Commission on Mental Health and Addiction about Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS).

The attorney general’s comments should not be interpreted to imply that he supports mandatory opioid testing of any kind for pregnant women – he does not.

Though the AG’s office also claims that the media has inaccurately portrayed this story, his statements last week were pretty clear. I think maybe someone just had to remind him that his lovely little idea was just a wee bit unconstitutional. Woops!

New York, NY

Verónica Bayetti Flores has spent the last years of her life living and breathing reproductive justice. She has led national policy and movement building work on the intersections of immigrants' rights, health care access, young parenthood, and LGBTQ liberation, and has worked to increase access to contraception and abortion, fought for paid sick leave, and demanded access to safe public space for queer youth of color. In 2008 Verónica obtained her Master’s degree in the Sexuality and Health program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She loves cooking, making art, listening to music, and thinking about the ways art forms traditionally seen as feminine are valued and devalued. In addition to writing for Feministing, she is currently spending most of her time doing policy work to reduce the harms of LGBTQ youth of color's interactions with the police and making sure abortion care is accessible to all regardless of their income.

Verónica is a queer immigrant writer, activist, and rabble-rouser.

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