US Mom Whose Baby Was Taken Away For Days Over Poppy Seed Drug Test Settles Lawsuit

[Purveyor]

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - A woman who had her newborn taken away because she failed a hospital drug test after she ate a poppy seed bagel has settled a lawsuit over the case.

Lawrence County's child welfare agency and Jameson Hospital have paid $143,500 to settle the suit filed on behalf of Elizabeth Mort by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which announced the settlement Tuesday.

Mort sued in October 2010, alleging that a poppy seed bagel she ate shortly before arriving at the hospital spurred a positive test for opiates in April 2010 that prompted the seizure of her 3-day-old daughter, Isabella Rodriguez.

Mort said she was home with her baby when a county child welfare caseworker arrived with an emergency protective custody order and took Isabella.

The lawsuit alleged Mort was never told in the hospital that she had failed a drug test, nor was she asked if she had eaten anything that could have affected the test results.

Read more:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/whose+baby+taken+away+days+over+poppy+seed+drug+test+settles/8606173/story.html#ixzz2XvFMyrcZ

[Jenoch]

1. Wow, talk about zero tolerance.

Common sense goes a long way in situations such as this. This is a Seinfeld story line.

[HockeyMom]

2. Guilty New Yorker

ate many a poppy bagel with a smear and COFFEE (horror) while pg. Even went to a 7 course WINE dinner at Windows on the Word when 7 months pg. Arrest me!!! Of course my unborn is now 34 years old, and suffered no consequences.

[truedelphi]

4. It may not be late...

Who knows how long the "attempted murder of the unborn" legal charges can last!

And don't let it out there - I used to sneak off into a remote corner of the big house I had when pregnant, to tell dead baby jokes with a pregnant girlfriend. (our friends would never tell us them - they thought it would somehow lead to complications. And probably did; my offspring has a wicked sense of humor!)

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. glad someone paid