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Letter to the editor: State bill on abortion is too restrictive

Class Reunion Notices

<p>If you want to see something depressing &#8212; even chilling &#8212; take a close look at the numbers in a Wednesday Times Leader <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/591256/substance-related-hospital-stays-for-newborns-soar-in-pennsylvania" target="_blank">story </a>regarding drug-related hospital stays for newborns.</p><p>Statewide, the number of neonatal hospital admissions due to substance abuse issues has skyrocketed in the last 15 years, from a modest 5.6 cases per 1,000 neonatal hospital stays in 2000 to 19.5 cases per 1,000 stays in 2015. That is an increase of 250 percent, a flatly unacceptable rate.</p><p>It is worse in our own back yard. In Luzerne County, the rate is 23.3 per 1,000 stays; in Lackawanna it&#8217;s 21.9; in Carbon it&#8217;s 21.7; in Schuylkill it&#8217;s 24.1.</p><p>The numbers come from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, an independent state agency with the goal of addressing escalating health care costs and increasing access. PHC4 mines data at the state, region and county levels to expose a wide range of trends that otherwise might go unnoticed.</p><p>In this case, the statewide data from 2015 should be alarming to everyone:</p><p>&#8226; In raw numbers, 2,691 neonatal hospital stays were related to substance abuse.</p><p>&#8226; A substance-related condition was present in nearly one of every 50 neonatal hospital stays.</p><p>&#8226; Hospitalizations related to substance abuse added 27, 835 hospital days for neonates</p><p>&#8226; When the bills were tallied, those extra days and treatments totaled an estimated $20.3 million.</p><p>&#8226; Hospital stays for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) &#8212; drug withdrawal for an infant addicted in the womb because of a mother&#8217;s use during pregnancy &#8212; increased an astonishing 870 percent since 2000, from 1.6 cases per 1,000 neonatal stays to 16 per 1,000</p><p>&#8226; Of those NAS-related hospital stays, 20.7 percent were for respiratory distress, 16.4 percent were for prematurity, 15.3 percent were for low birth weight, and 12.3 percent were for difficulty feeding.</p><p>All of this, of course, is fueled by drug and alcohol use among expectant mothers. The data shows that previous drugs of choice &#8212; alcohol and cocaine &#8212; are losing favor. Maternal hospital stays for alcohol-related problems dropped 36 percent since 2000, and cocaine-related stays dropped 61 percent.</p><p>Yet those declines were more than offset by a 510 percent increase in maternal hospital stays for opioid-related problems, including heroin.</p><p>If the numbers seem daunting, focus on this: We are talking about newborns and infants &#8212; literally innocent babes. They did nothing to cause this, and could do nothing to prevent it, yet they bear the consequences.</p><p>In recent months Gov. Tom Wolf has rightly focused a spotlight on the opioid epidemic, holding roundtable discussions across the state, proposing $34 million for new treatment centers and options, and pushing legislation designed to curb abuse.</p><p>But in the end, the real solution lies with parents-to-be, particularly expectant mothers, who need to remember it is no longer only themselves they put at risk.</p><p>Pregnant? If you use, you are using for two.</p><style>
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Our Opinion: Curb growth of infants cursed by mothers’ addictions