Moms still risk punitive state action over NAS/NOWS.

Despite the insistence by the federal government, the American Academy of Pediatrics and others that neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) or neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) not be used by child welfare authorities or others in a punitive manner (see HHS releases standard definition for opioid withdrawal in infants, ADAW Feb. 7; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adaw.33338), that is happening in some areas anyway. In Ohio, in the midst of the Health and Human Services Department's release of the new definition of NAS/NOWS, Ohio lawmakers were planning legislation that would require drug testing of mother and infant if there was any report of a substance exposure. Among other things, the bill would require a court to issue both of these orders if a child is considered "abused" (by definition, substance exposure is abuse and neglect) as a result of substance exposure [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]