The Impact of Prenatal Substance Use Policies on Substance Use Disorder Treatment Admissions

State policies pertaining to prenatal substance use have important implications for health outcomes of pregnant women and their infants. However, little is known about the impact of the various types of prenatal substance use policies (i.e., treatment and supportive services, criminal justice initiatives, and health care provider reporting requirements) on substance use disorder treatment admissions. Using data from the 2002–2014 Treatment Episode Data Set - Admissions, we exploited state-level variation in the implementation of different types of policies to assess their impact on pregnant women’s admission to substance use disorder treatment. The study found that the enactment of policies focused only in the criminal justice sector was negatively associated with the proportion of women of reproductive age who were pregnant upon admission to treatment. Additionally, the implementation of policies that engaged all three sectors was positively associated with the proportion of women of reproductive age who were pregnant upon admission to treatment. These results held for pregnant women across age groups and for both Whites and non-Whites. The findings imply that states that are more policy engaged around prenatal substance use and adopt policies that take a multifaceted, comprehensive approach are more likely to see an increase in admissions to substance use disorder treatment during pregnancy.