House Study Bill 49 - Introduced HOUSE FILE _____ BY (PROPOSED COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY BILL BY CHAIRPERSON BAUDLER) A BILL FOR An Act establishing a child endangerment offense for the mother 1 of a newborn child who caused an illegal drug to be present 2 in the newborn child’s body, and providing a penalty. 3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA: 4 TLSB 1665YC (1) 85 jp/nh

H.F. _____ Section 1. Section 726.6, subsection 1, Code 2013, is 1 amended by adding the following new paragraph: 2 NEW PARAGRAPH . i. By act or omission a newborn child’s 3 mother caused an illegal drug to be present in the newborn 4 child’s body and the drug’s presence is a direct and 5 foreseeable consequence of the act or omission. Unless the 6 presence of the illegal drug caused death or serious injury 7 to the newborn child, the drug’s presence shall be considered 8 to have caused bodily injury to the newborn child. For the 9 purposes of this paragraph, “newborn child” means an infant who 10 is three days of age or younger. 11 Sec. 2. Section 726.6, subsection 6, Code 2013, is amended 12 to read as follows: 13 6. A person who commits child endangerment resulting in 14 bodily injury to a child or minor or child endangerment in 15 violation of subsection 1 , paragraph “g” or “i” , that does not 16 result in a serious injury, is guilty of a class “D” felony. 17 EXPLANATION 18 This bill provides a new child endangerment offense under 19 Code section 726.6. The new offense applies to an act or 20 omission by the child’s mother that caused an illegal drug 21 to be present in the body of a newborn child as a direct and 22 foreseeable consequence of the act or omission. The term 23 “newborn child” is defined to mean an infant who is three days 24 of age or younger. Unless the presence of the illegal drug 25 caused death or serious injury to the newborn child, the drug’s 26 presence is considered to have caused bodily injury to the 27 child. A child endangerment offense that causes bodily injury 28 to a child is punishable as a class “D” felony. 29 -1- LSB 1665YC (1) 85 jp/nh 1/ 1