US senators are calling for action to help protect thousands of babies born each year to mothers who used opioids during pregnancy.
Senator Robert Casey of Pennsylvania is calling for oversight hearings, to investigate why a federal law directing states to safeguard the newborns is not being enforced.
Another Democrat, Senator Charles Schumer of New York, wants the Obama Administration to put "an emergency surge" of funds from the new federal budget toward addressing the growing number of drug-dependent newborns.
The calls come after a Reuters investigation earlier this month identified 110 examples of babies and toddlers whose mothers used opioid drugs during their pregnancies and who died under preventable circumstances after being sent home from hospitals to families ill-equipped to keep them safe.
Six women who accidentally killed their babies while on drugs said in interviews that they wished they had received more help from hospitals or social workers.
Despite a 12-year-old federal law that calls on states to protect drug-dependent newborns, Reuters found that thousands of babies born to mothers who use opioids during pregnancy are being sent home without social-service evaluations and safe-care plans - requirements under the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act.
Since 2003, when the law was passed, the number of newborns diagnosed with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome has skyrocketed - from 4,991 cases in 2003 to 27,315 in 2013, according to a Reuters analysis of hospital discharge data kept by the federal government.
