A group of New Jersey parents filed a class-action lawsuit against the state to end its purported practice of storing the blood of all newborn babies without parental consent.
After drawing blood from newborn infants to test for diseases, the state keeps the blood for 23 years without the parents’ knowledge or consent, according to the lawsuit.
Parents fear the blood may be used in “alarming” ways, like in Texas when the state reportedly handed over blood samples to the U.S. Department of Defense to create a national registry, the lawsuit alleges.
Our blood is our own, and parents are the ones to decide what’s best for their kid. New Jersey’s secret storage and use of baby blood for 23 years(!) violates these fundamental rights.
That’s why today, @IJ filed suit on behalf of millions of New Jersey families. https://t.co/pOSk8Dk5kJ pic.twitter.com/utUfz5l1tN
— Robert Frommer (@Robert_Frommer) November 2, 2023
The storage of the children’s blood deprives the plaintiffs of their fourth amendment rights, the lawsuit claims. (RELATED: Blue State Gov. Spent Thousands Of Taxpayer Funds On Stadium Concessions — Including At A Taylor Swift Concert)
The nonprofit Institute for Justice filed the lawsuit on behalf of a group of New Jersey parents.
“Once you’re done with the purpose for taking it, you can’t just keep it in secret and do whatever you want with it,” Brian Morris, a lawyer with the Institute of Justice, said, according to NJ Advance Media.
“Right now, New Jersey’s kind of this secret black box where they’re unwilling to tell anybody what they’re doing with it, and that’s kind of part of the problem,” Morris claimed.
New Jersey law does not require the state to ask for parental permission to draw babies’ blood, according to the lawsuit.