APPEALS COURT: PREGNANT S.C. WOMEN DID NOT AGREE TO DRUG TESTS

RICHMOND, Va. -- Most of the pregnant women who sued a South Carolina
hospital for giving them drug tests and handing the results over to police
had not agreed to be tested, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston adopted the
drug-testing policy in 1989 to stop the crack baby epidemic.

After complaints that some women were arrested from their beds shortly
after giving birth, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the tests violated
constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.

The Supreme Court sent back to the appeals court the question of whether
the women actually consented to the tests.

The three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1
that eight of the 10 women who sued did not know they were being tested for
cocaine and did not consent to the testing.

"It is certainly disheartening that, as a result of our holding today,
damages may be imposed on those who acted with the best interests of the
Appellants and their children at heart," wrote Judge William W. Wilkins Jr.

The lawsuit now will return to a lower court for a jury to determine what
damages the women should receive, their lawyer said.

"These women had no idea their doctors were acting as agents for the
police. They said, 'We're here to help you.' Some of the women actually
were there to get help and then they were turned in," said Priscilla Smith,
an attorney with the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.

Robert Holmes Hood, who represents the defendants, including the city of
Charleston and the university, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The 10 women sued the hospital in 1993, saying the policy was
unconstitutional. One woman had spent three weeks in jail, and Smith said
another was taken to jail soon after giving birth.

A federal jury in South Carolina found in favor of the hospital and, in
1999, the 4th Circuit upheld the verdict, saying the drug testing fell
under a special category of law that allows warrantless searches when the
government can demonstrate a "special need."

The court said the hospital's drug-testing policy was a valid effort to
reduce crack-cocaine use by pregnant women.

The hospital dropped the policy after the lawsuit was filed. In all, police
arrested about 30 maternity patients and charged them under the state's
child endangerment law.

Thursday's ruling does not apply to two of the plaintiffs, who the judges
said either suffered no constitutional violation or were not searched.