HLNTV
All newborns cry, that’s just a fact of life. But parents can usually diagnose and fix the problem: Is it a dirty diaper? Is the baby hungry? Does the baby just need some cuddle time?For newborns who are withdrawing from drugs due to addicted or over medicated moms, however, there is no way to stop the crying. They can do it for hours on end with no relief.
“I’ve held and rocked these babies. I just want to bawl, I just want to cry. It’s wrong,” Terri Lynn Weaver told HLN. “These babies are meant to come into the world addicted to mommy’s milk, not cocaine or heroin.”
Weaver, who is a mother, a grandmother and a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, said it was her maternal instincts that pushed her to start work on a bill that would target these mothers who she said “force feed” drugs to their unborn babies — a move she likened to “child abuse inside the womb.”
“This child has no choice — it has to ingest and take what’s given to it. And it’s so sad that their little cries are not being heard,” Weaver said.
The legislation she has proposed, HB 1295 and SB 1391, would give moms of babies who are born dependent on drugs two choices: Face a misdemeanor charge or go to drug court where they will be put through an 18-month treatment program.