
A mom says an "everything bagel" caused her to fail a drug test. The hospital reported her to child protective services anyway
It all stemmed from the unexpected results of one urine drug test — a routine test given to thousands of maternity patients across the country. It illustrates the findings of a joint investigation between "CBS Sunday Morning" and The Marshall Project that found the percentage of false positive results from urine drug tests to be as high as 50%.
"It was almost like an out-of-body experience. I mean, I truly could not believe that it was happening," Katie, of Huntsville, who asked to only be referred to by her first name, told "CBS Sunday Morning." She was shocked to learn she tested positive for opiates.
The bagel Katie ate was seasoned with poppy seeds, which come from the same plant cultivated for the production of opiates like morphine and codeine and can trigger a false positive test result for opiates. The fact that poppy seeds can cause a false positive test result is well documented. In fact, the U.S. Department of Defense even issued a warning in 2023 to service members that "consumption of poppy seed products could result in a codeine positive urinalysis result."
A 2001 Supreme Court ruling determined that maternity patients cannot be tested for illegal drugs without their informed consent or a valid warrant if the test's sole purpose is to obtain evidence of criminal conduct for law enforcement purposes. But many hospitals routinely test patients, arguing the tests have a medical purpose. Katie agreed to what she believed to be a routine drug screening, simply thinking she had nothing to worry about.
"I signed and said, 'Yes, that's fine,'" Katie, who took the drug test before giving birth, explained. "I didn't take any over-the-counter medicine. I didn't take Tylenol."
The practice of drug testing pregnant patients before giving birth dates back to the 1980s crack epidemic and has continued in more recent years amid today's opioid epidemic. There were an estimated 54,743 overdose deaths involving opioids in 2024, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
According to a review by The Marshall Project, hospitals in at least 27 states across the U.S. are required by law to alert child welfare authorities to a positive drug test or potential exposure — even before a second, more definitive test can be given to the mother to ensure it wasn't a false positive. This often leads to long and stressful investigations that can turn a family's life upside-down.
Hours after giving birth at Crestwood Medical Center, Katie feared both of her children could be taken away, when a member of the Alabama Department of Human Resources showed up in her hospital room to discuss her positive drug screen. The state social worker asked Katie to sign a safety plan, a written agreement between a parent and CPS that outlines specific steps to be taken to ensure the safety and protection of a child amid an ongoing investigation.
"Safety plans are developed to protect children from safety threats when the parents'/primary caregivers' protective capacities are insufficient. Safety plans are based on identifiable safety threats and coupled with diminished parental/primary caregiver protective capacities which place the child at present or impending danger," the department's administrative code states.
Katie said she was told both of her children would be removed from her custody if she didn't sign the safety plan. Overwhelmed by the terrifying thoughts racing in her head, Katie signed the plan.
For nearly a month, Katie said she was only allowed monitored time with her children. And although she was breastfeeding her newborn, she still had to leave her home every night when everyone was asleep and only return in the morning when she could be supervised.
"I would leave the house and I would, I mean, scream in my car because I was so devastated to leave her," said Katie, apologizing for choking up. "It was torture; it was pain I've never felt before."
In a statement to "CBS Sunday Morning," Crestwood Medical Center said its health care workers conduct a urine drug screen on all patients admitted for labor and delivery "to help assess any potential medical needs of the mother and newborn." If a test is positive, the hospital said it immediately orders a confirmatory test, and notifies the Department of Human Resources in compliance with Alabama State Law.
"We understand that false positive results can occur and make every effort to keep mother and child together in the hospital until a confirmatory test result is received. In these situations, our physicians, our neonatal care team and DHR work collaboratively on appropriate safety plans considering all of the information available about the mother and newborn at the time," Crestwood said.
Katie said the medical center did order a second confirmatory test in her case, but health care workers had already called the Alabama Department of Human Resources, triggering an investigation. Confirmatory drug tests are sent off to a laboratory since they require a more thorough analysis. It can take up to 5 business days after receiving the sample for the lab to process and send results.
By the time the second round of drug test results arrived, showing both Katie and her baby were clear of any substances, the state-run agency's child welfare probe was well underway. Katie claims the negative results weren't enough to stop the investigation, but the Department of Human Resources closed the case after a month, when she and her husband hired an attorney.
Dr. Kelley Butler, a family medicine doctor in San Diego, California, called situations like Katie's "entirely unfair."
"Let's also be clear: one positive urine toxicology does not equal a substance use disorder by the DSM-5 criteria," Butler explained, referring to a diagnostic tool used by mental health professionals to help diagnose certain conditions or disorders. "All it says is this person was exposed to something that made this test positive. Hello! As in the case of this everything bagel, which probably had poppy seeds, which can be a false positive for opiates."
A National Library of Medicine study confirmed ingesting poppy seeds in food products like pastries, bagels, muffins or cakes can show concentrations of morphine in urine drug tests. While the highest concentrations of total morphine were found between three and eight hours after consumption, they could still show up within a 48-hour window. That's why the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency advises athletes to avoid eating anything containing poppy seeds for at least a few days before competitions, warning that it "can't predict how long morphine or morphine metabolites from poppy seeds will stay in your system."
But it's not just poppy seeds that can lead to faulty test results.
There's an entire suite of medications, foods and exposures that are safe to take during pregnancy or have been prescribed by a physician that can result in false positives. The National Library of Medicine also reports that over-the-counter cough suppressants like dextromethorphan, and antibiotics to treat bacterial infections like rifampin and quinolone, can also cause false positive opiate test results.
Perhaps even more unsettling than accidentally ingesting something that could result in a positive opiate test, a mother can be investigated if she or the baby tests positive for opiates even when the medication was given to her by the hospital during labor.
That's exactly what Victoria Villanueva says happened to her.
She was 18 years old in 2017 when she gave birth to her first child in an Indiana hospital. Her medical records show that she tested negative for any illicit substances upon entering the hospital and was given morphine during labor to ease pain – but that didn't stop the hospital from reporting her to the Indiana Department of Child Services when her newborn daughter tested positive for opiates.
"I was bawling my eyes out, because I was thinking, well, they were going to take my baby away," Villanueva told "CBS Sunday Morning."
Villanueva and her husband both passed drug tests, but — like Katie — she was still required to sign a safety plan. She believes that it may have been because she had admitted to once experimenting with drugs two years earlier.
Over the next month, a social worker came regularly to check on her and inspect her home.
"I was robbed of that experience to like, you know, actually be able to enjoy my child. Honestly, I was just too busy worrying about DCS, and them, possibly, taking my daughter away from me," she said.
Lynn Paltrow, founder of Pregnancy Justice, who was part of the legal team that won the 2001 Supreme Court decision that ruled it unconstitutional to use drug test results solely to criminally prosecute pregnant women, says a single test result should never be relied on to report a mother.
A positive drug test "can't tell you if I'm addicted [or] I'm dependent and it certainly cannot tell you how I parent. And yet for thousands of women in this country, and families, probably millions, a drug test is used as a parenting test," Paltrow said.
Butler suggests hospitals use different forms of screening, like verbal questions, to identify potential substance use issues that could affect the birth or baby.
Verbal screening or questionnaires are also recommended by most major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The National Library of Medicine also acknowledges that toxicology testing of pregnant patients has some limitations and possible negative consequences and said it should always be done with a woman's consent.
The reporting of drug use during pregnancy to child welfare agencies "is strongly biased against racial and ethnic minorities, even following concerted efforts to prevent such bias. A positive toxicology test also shows evidence of use, but does not provide any information about the nature or extent of that use; similarly, a negative test does not rule out substance use, which is often sporadic," the National Library of Medicine states.
Last fall, New Jersey Attorney General Mathew Platkin filed a civil rights lawsuit against the hospital group Virtua Health, accusing it of singling out pregnant mothers and drug testing them without their informed consent.
Jennifer Khelil, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Virtua Health, told "CBS Sunday Morning" that New Jersey law requires hospitals and health care providers to report positive drug screen results to the state's child protection agency, which then completes its own assessment and works directly with the families on next steps.
"The devastating toll of the opioid epidemic requires thorough and equitable processes for identifying and supporting babies with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome and related conditions," Khelil said.
Virtua Health implemented a universal urine drug testing policy — as an effort to "avoid subjectivity in testing," according to Khelil — for pregnant patients delivering at its hospitals back in 2018. In October 2024, a week after Platkin's suit was filed, the hospital group modified its universal urine testing protocol. A Virtua Health spokesperson told NJ Spotlight News at the time that it now screens pregnant patients admitted at its hospitals based on "patient indications."
"I think it's wrong. When you're ruining precious moments of people's lives and uprooting things, you can't just shrug it off and say, well, sorry you fell in the cracks," Katie said.
Nearly a year later, Katie is pregnant again — and the same fears are weighing on her.
She spoke with her new doctor about refusing a drug screen this time, but says she was told that the hospital would report her to Alabama Department of Human Resources if she declined.
"So I feel trapped. This all just happened a year ago. So it's very fresh. And I'm very wounded still from it, and terrified of it happening again," Katie said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
SIGA to Host Business Update Call on August 5, 2025 Following Release of Second-Quarter 2025 Results
NEW YORK, July 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SIGA Technologies, Inc. (SIGA) (Nasdaq: SIGA), a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company, today announced that management will host a webcast and conference call to provide a business update at 4:30 P.M. ET on Tuesday, August 5, 2025. Participating in the call will be Diem Nguyen, Chief Executive Officer, and Daniel Luckshire, Chief Financial Officer. A live webcast of the call will also be available on the Company's website at in the Investor Relations section of the site, or by clicking here. Please log in approximately 5-10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. Participants may access the call by dialing 1-800-717-1738 for domestic callers or 1-646-307-1865 for international callers. A replay of the call will be available for two weeks by dialing 1-844-512-2921 for domestic callers or 1-412-317-6671 for international callers and using Conference ID: 1130215. The archived webcast will be available in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website. About SIGA SIGA is a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company and leader in global health focused on the development of innovative medicines to treat and prevent infectious diseases. With a primary focus on orthopoxviruses, we are dedicated to protecting humanity against the world's most severe infectious diseases, including those that occur naturally, accidentally, or intentionally. Through partnerships with governments and public health agencies, we work to build a healthier and safer world by providing essential countermeasures against these global health threats. Our flagship product, TPOXX® (tecovirimat), is an antiviral medicine approved in the U.S. and Canada for the treatment of smallpox and authorized in Europe, the UK, and Japan for the treatment of smallpox, mpox (monkeypox), cowpox, and vaccinia complications. For more information about SIGA, visit Contacts:Suzanne Harnettsharnett@ and Investors Media Jennifer Drew-Bear, Edison GroupJdrew-bear@ Holly Stevens, CG Lifehstevens@
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sarepta shares rebound after shipments of gene therapy Elevidys resume in US
(Reuters) -Sarepta Therapeutics shares surged more than 30% before the bell on Tuesday, as analysts said the resumption of U.S. shipments for its muscular gene therapy partially removes financial headwinds and decreases the risk of market withdrawal. The company said on Monday it would resume shipments of Elevidys — approved in the U.S. to treat a rare condition called Duchenne muscular dystrophy — to patients who can walk. U.S. shipments to patients who cannot walk independently are still halted, following the death of two teenage boys earlier this year. These incidents brought heightened regulatory scrutiny to Sarepta in recent weeks, while the pause of shipments raised concerns about the future of Elevidys — the company's largest revenue generator. Sarepta's announcement followed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recommendation that the voluntary hold on shipments be removed after a probe showed the death of an 8-year-old boy in Brazil was not related to Elevidys. Wall Street analysts said the resumption of shipments would allow Sarepta to fulfill its near-term payments to partner Arrowhead and maintain access to its debt facilities. "The FDA's recommendation and the resumption of commercial treatment in the U.S. virtually eliminate the risk of Elevidys being formally withdrawn from the market," said William Blair analyst Sami Corwin. While the decision allows some patients to regain access to the treatment, analysts warned that patients and doctors could show hesitancy in light of the recent hit to reputation. "It remains to be seen how the news headlines regarding the patient deaths will affect commercial interest in the near term," Corwin said. Sarepta's partner Roche had also stopped Elevidys shipments in certain countries outside the U.S. Shares of Sarepta surged 36% to $18.85 in premarket trading. They have fallen more than 80% since the first Elevidys-related death was reported in March. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data


New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
UnitedHealth's Profits Fall as Costs of Care Continue to Rise
UnitedHealth Group, the giant health care conglomerate, said on Tuesday that it continued to struggle with higher-than-anticipated costs of providing medical care to patients enrolled in its health plans, reporting a drop in earnings for the quarter ended June 30. While UnitedHealth remained profitable, its operating earnings for the three months fell to $5.2 billion from $7.9 billion in the same period of 2024. Revenues, however, increased to $111.6 billion for the three months of 2025, compared with $98.9 billion for the same period of 2024. The higher costs were felt across the company's vast health insurance operations, including one of its most successful businesses, selling private Medicare plans as an alternative to traditional Medicare. UnitedHealth owns the nation's largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, which covers 50 million people. Other insurance companies have also reported rising medical costs and disappointing profits. Last Friday, Centene, a for-profit insurance company that focuses mostly on patients who are enrolled in Medicaid and Obamacare plans, was the latest insurer to blame rising expenses for poor financial results. But UnitedHealth's stumble, which began earlier this year, has shocked many of its investors who have come to rely on steady increases of profits from the conglomerate. Since November, the company's stock has lost roughly half of its value. The company owns an assortment of health care businesses, including surgery centers, a vast network of medical practices, and a big pharmacy benefit manager as well as health insurance plans. In the new earnings report, UnitedHealth acknowledged that many of the businesses housed under its Optum unit were also underperforming, including its network of physicians and other clinicians who provide care under the privatized portion of the Medicare program, known as Medicare Advantage. UnitedHealth has experienced a series of misfortunes over the last two years, including the murder of the chief executive of its insurance operations, Brian Thompson. Investors have lost confidence in the company's business model, and patients have grown increasingly frustrated with its methods. In May, it abruptly replaced its chief executive, Andrew Witty, with Stephen Hemsley, who had stepped down from the position in 2017. Last week, the company confirmed the Department of Justice was investigating its Medicare operations. UnitedHealth announced its earnings before the stock market opened. Mr. Hemsley took steps to reassure investors. The company, which had withdrawn its profit outlook for the year, provided investors with an estimate of what it expected to earn for 2025. It estimated revenues of slightly under $450 billion with net earnings of at least $14.65 per share. The company said it expected to return to earnings growth in 2026. 'UnitedHealth Group has embarked on a rigorous path back to being a high-performing company fully serving the health needs of individuals and society broadly,' Mr. Hemsley said in a statement in the company's earnings release. 'As we strengthen operating disciplines, positioning us for growth in 2026 and beyond, the people at UnitedHealth Group will continue to support the millions of patients, physicians and customers who rely on us, guided by a culture of service and longstanding values.'