ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Albuquerque police officer who convinced a pregnant woman he found using heroin to let him adopt her unborn child will attend President Donald Trump's State of the Union address as a guest of the president.
Officer Ryan Holets will attend Trump's speech on Tuesday after he and his wife were praised last month for adopting the baby girl they named Hope. They adopted the girl after the addicted mom agreed to let the couple raise her baby.
The baby is now 10-weeks-old and is recovering after being born with an opioid addiction.
Holets found the homeless woman and a man using heroin near a convenience store in September, police said. But instead of charging the couple with drug possession, he asked to adopt her child.
City officials called the officer's act selfless, said it gave the infant a chance at a new life and attracted international attention in an era of a rampaging opioid epidemic.
In New Mexico, where an estimated 5 percent of all babies are born addicted to opioids, the story also is drawing attention to an epidemic that continues to overwhelm hospitals, law enforcement and social workers.
Holets and his wife already had four children.