Did you know that if the state finds out that a newborn baby who has drugs in their system when born is just temporarily taken away from birth parents and not held criminally accountable?

I didn’t know this until I became a foster parent.

Currently in Indiana, birth parents are not being held responsible (criminally) when giving birth to a drug-addicted baby.  There are no charges filed, not even a “neglect of a dependent” charge.  This addiction in the baby can lead to lifelong challenges, and the person responsible for it has no repercussions other than temporarily having their child taken from them.

In most cases, the baby is returned to the birth parent after showing the Department of Child Services that they can be a responsible parent.  And many times, these parents do go back to doing drugs while caring for their children. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of cases lately in Indiana where a child is returned and then something horrific has happened to the child(ren).  I feel that holding the parents who expose their babies to drugs in utero criminally accountable can possibly help to lower the number of deaths in Indiana’s children who are returned to birth parents after being removed by the system.

Let us contact our representatives so we can make this change.