AUGUSTA — Maine’s Republican governor wants to require everyone from a school bus driver to camp counselors to report a pregnant woman’s suspected substance abuse.

The state says 8 percent of babies born in 2015 were affected by drugs, alcohol, or both. Currently, under state law, certain health care providers have to tell the state when infants demonstrate drug withdrawal symptoms.

Gov. Paul LePage’s bill would expand that reporting requirement to known or suspected substance abuse during “gestation.”

His bill would expand the list of those required to make such reports to substance abuse treatment providers, school officials and commercial film processors.

Another bill backed by LePage would fine local governments that don’t charge individuals who repeatedly overdose for the cost of administering opioid antidotes.

Republican Rep. Frances Head sponsored both bills with public hearings scheduled Monday.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage, testifies during a House Natural Resources subcommittee oversight hearing on the Antiquities Act on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, May 2, 2017.

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filed under:
health care, legislature, Paul LePage, politics, pregnancy
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