Pregnant and parenting people who use drugs often become involved in the criminal legal system. This is due to prohibitionist drug policies, punitive substance use in pregnancy policies, and, increasingly, pregnancy criminalization. Pregnancy and parenting people deserve yet rarely receive accurate and compassionate medical expertise in the court, especially in family court. DRBB is committed to bridging the gaps between medicine and the law. We have started hosting a journal club for lawyers where we introduce basic epidemiology and study design and critically review scientific papers that have been presented in legal cases. We hope to build a resource library of scientific publications with annotations that can be used in legal cases and communications. We to are developing a set of resources for criminal defense lawyers to help them understand the topics of substance use and pregnancy to improve their ability to defend clients. And we are launching Science in the Court - a collaborative project to train and support health professionals to serve as experts in legal cases involving drugs, pregnancy, and parenting.

Drs. Taylor and Terplan have provided medical expertise in both criminal and civil cases, to attorneys generals offices, non-profits, and family courts. They have spoken to audiences of judges, the court, and both prosecutors and public defenders. But as law and policy become more punitive and health care more carceral, we need to expand and support a workforce at the intersection of medicine and the law.