Bills
| 3.23.22

Does More Research Need to be Done to Prevent Opioid Abuse Among Pregnant Mothers? (H.R. 1462)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 1462?

(Updated July 13, 2017)

This bill would require the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to report on prenatal opioid abuse and neonatal abstinence syndrome. 

The purpose of the report would be to identify barriers to treatment for mothers who have abused opioids (like heroin or pain medications), and their unborn children who were exposed in the womb. Neonatal abstinence syndrome is the term for the effects of opioid withdrawal experienced by newborn children. The AHRQ’s report would include:

  • Assessments of existing research on neonatal abstinence syndrome;

  • Evaluations of the causes and barriers to treatment of opioid use among women of reproductive age;

  • An evaluation of treatment for pregnant women with opioid use disorders and infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome;

  • Recommendations for preventing, identifying, and treating opioid dependency in women and neonatal abstinence syndrome.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) would be required to review its current activities related to prenatal opioid use and neonatal abstinence syndrome. It would then develop a strategy to address gaps in research and programs that deal with these issues.

Also, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be required to provide technical assistance to states in order to improve neonatal abstinence syndrome tracking. That tracking data would be made available to the public.

Argument in favor

As heroin and other opioids have become more widely available, the prevalence of abuse by pregnant mothers has increased — tragically harming their unborn children. Increased research would allow for a better-informed strategy to combat this growing threat.

Argument opposed

The sad truth of this situation is that there will always be drug abuse that negatively impacts the health of mothers and their unborn or infant children. It is unrealistic to think that the government will eliminate it, so those efforts should be left to private groups.

Impact

Mothers who have abused opioids and their newborn children, HHS, the CDC, and AHRQ.

Cost of H.R. 1462

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: The lead sponsor of the House version of this legislation, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), believes:

“There is nothing political or partisan about the opiate epidemic or the babies who are suffering its devastating effects… The Protecting Infants Act of 2015 is a common sense approach to determining how to best care for these newborns while also addressing the enormous cost of that care.”
This legislation has bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress, with 56 Democratic and 38 Republican cosponsors in the House, and 20 cosponsors split between the two parties in the Senate. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced this bill’s Senate companion.

According to a study in the Journal of Perinatology, cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome increased threefold between 2000 and 2009, and continued to grow between 2009 and 2012. Over that period, about $1.5 billion has been spent treating those infants, with most of the costs accruing to state Medicaid programs.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: Flickr user Army Medicine)