Virtua Health’s policy of universally drug testing pregnant patients violates the state’s antidiscrimination law, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said in a lawsuit filed Thursday, claiming the nonprofit health system’s policy unfairly catapults families into a child-welfare investigation that can separate newborns from their parents.

“Virtua’s practices single out pregnant patients for mandatory drug testing without informed consent," said Sundeep Iyer, director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. "As a result, patients are unnecessarily traumatized and fear they will lose their children mere hours after giving birth.

"[W]hen pregnant patients receive a positive test result, Virtua will automatically report them to the Division of Child Protection and Permanency for possible child abuse or neglect—even when the positive test occurs only because the patient ate a poppy seed bagel,

The state Attorney General’s Office and the Division of Civil Rights has filed a lawsuit against a South Jersey health system, alleging its drug-testing policy unfairly targets pregnant women. The suit was filed against Virtua Health,

State officials have filed a discrimination lawsuit against a New Jersey hospital network for secretly drug testing women as they arrived to give birth.

Other patients admitted to hospitals within the South Jersey health care provider's network did not receive automatic screening for banned substances, according to the complaint filed in State Superior Court.

Hospital drug screening processes implemented to care for pregnant patients and their babies violate state sex and pregnancy anti-discrimination protections, the New Jersey Attorney General alleged in a suit filed Thursday.

New Jersey’s attorney general has filed a complaint against Virtua Health, accusing the health system of performing drug tests on pregnant patients without their consent, a violation of their civil rights.