Hannah Lovaglio's first son entered the world a month early. Nurses bustled in and out of the hospital room during his first days of life and frequently pricked his heel to check his blood, Lovaglio recalled.
"I just trusted and assumed that everyone had my best interest in mind and my child's best interest in mind," she said. "So I didn't question much."
Unbeknownst to the new mother, New Jersey secretly stores newborn "bloodspots" for up to 23 years and has in some cases turned samples over to police, open records inquiries found.
Now, Lovaglio and fellow mom Erica Jedynak have joined a federal class-action lawsuit that accuses New Jersey health officials of violating millions of babies' and parents' constitutional right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.
Every state requires hospital staff to collect a baby's blood shortly after birth. The blood is then tested for a variety of health disorders like cystic fibrosis, hormonal deficiencies or other immunodeficiencies and congenital disorders.
In New Jersey, the screening identifies about 150 babies per year with serious illnesses, according to a handout hospitals give parents. Parents are not told that the state stores those samples for more than two decades, nor why.
Jedynak tried to opt out, but a nurse told her the screening was mandatory. After 26 hours in the hospital and an emergency cesarean section, Jedynak didn't have the strength to argue.
"It's a very creepy practice," Jedynak told Fox News. "My son's blood has his genetic information. It is unique to him and I actually consider that bodily property."
