Filed
6:00 a.m. EDT
04.25.2025
The reporting uncovered the affect of widespread drug testing on pregnant folks.
Susan Horton helps her kids throughout playtime of their residence in Cotati, California, in July 2024.
The Marshall Mission has been honored as a finalist for the 2025 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for its collaborative collection revealing widespread drug testing of birthing sufferers in hospitals throughout the nation and its damaging penalties. This investigative work, produced in partnership with Reveal, Mom Jones and USA Right this moment, was spearheaded by reporter Shoshana Walter, with contributions from Marianne McCune and the workers of The Marshall Mission and Reveal.
The collection uncovered how hospitals administer unreliable drug checks to birthing sufferers, resulting in unwarranted baby welfare interventions. In lots of instances, moms have been reported for constructive checks triggered by the drugs the hospitals themselves gave them throughout labor. The investigation started with the story of a mom whose constructive methamphetamine check was falsely triggered by a standard blood stress medicine. Walter uncovered quite a few different instances, together with a girl who ate a poppy seed salad that resulted in a false constructive opiate check and the momentary elimination of her new child. The reporting highlighted the excessive false-positive charges of urine screens and the resultant threats many new mother and father face from baby welfare businesses.
Walter performed intensive interviews with tons of of pregnant folks and birthing sufferers, examined medical data and filed public data requests to scrutinize drug testing and reporting practices. Her findings revealed that federal authorities have lengthy been conscious of the unreliability of urine screens, but no state has applied safeguards to guard birthing sufferers’ rights. This lack of oversight has led to traumatizing experiences for a lot of households who have been wrongfully accused and separated.
“We’re so happy with Shoshana’s reporting and the affect this work has had, and we’re grateful to the moms who got here ahead to inform their tales,” mentioned Appearing Editor-in-Chief Geraldine Sealey. “Accountability journalism that makes a distinction in folks’s lives is extra essential than ever.”
Due to this investigation many affected girls have come ahead, and advocacy teams have mobilized for change. The tales have gained legislative consideration, prompting U.S. lawmakers to sentence the follow and search options. Advocacy teams are leveraging the investigation to instigate authorized and coverage reforms throughout a number of states. Inside the medical and baby welfare communities, the collection has sparked discussions and initiated efforts to revise present procedures, demonstrating the potential for systemic change prompted by rigorous investigative journalism.
Different Marshall Mission reporters who contributed to this mission have been Weihua Li, Andrew Rodriguez Calderón, Nakylah Carter and Catherine Odom.
The Goldsmith Prize, administered by the Shorenstein Heart on Media, Politics and Public Coverage at Harvard Kennedy Faculty, “honors investigative reporting that finest promotes simpler and moral conduct of presidency, the making of public coverage, or the follow of politics.” Finalists obtain $10,000, and the winner receives $25,000. This 12 months’s winners have been Katey Rusch and Casey Smith for a collaboration of The San Francisco Chronicle and the College of California Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program that uncovered how California police businesses used secret authorized settlements to masks officers’ misconduct. For extra details about the award and to view the complete record of finalists, go to GoldsmithAwards.org.
