During her third pregnancy, Ayanna Harris-Rashid ate legal CBD gummies to help with frequent pregnancy pain and nausea. But when she gave birth in March 2021, she and her newborn tested positive for marijuana, prompting the hospital to report her to South Carolina’s child welfare agency.
Just a couple of months later, Harris-Rashid was sitting up in bed, breastfeeding her son, when she got a call from the police. She was facing a felony charge of child neglect.
She was arrested, strip-searched and locked for the night in a cold and crowded jail cell. By the time she got out the following morning, her milk supply had dropped, and she found she could no longer breastfeed. As a mother myself, I couldn’t believe what Harris-Rashid went through. But I was even more shocked when I learned just how common her experience is.
In my latest investigation for The Marshall Project and Mother Jones, reporter Jill Castellano and I found mothers are being reported to police and prosecutors with shocking frequency.
This is something that has the potential to impact everyone giving birth in the United States—and maybe it’s happened to you or someone you know. If you’ve had a brush with law enforcement during your pregnancy, labor or delivery, we want to hear from you.
—Shoshana Walter
