Pregnant in Prison - Aclu case protects access to medical care

"Bethany thought she was going to lose her baby when she was about four months pregnant. Recovery from a drug addiction, Bethany was in a successful drug treatment program, but she had to serve 24 days in the county jail for traffic violations. The jail refused to give her the medicine she needed to avoid the risks of withdrawal during pregnancy and protect her from miscarriage." "Prisons and jails are not so much set up for taking care of women during pregnancy. I understand sometimes people think. Well you don't get the same care in jail that you get outside, but this isn't the situation here. This is the situation where they were putting her pregnancy at risk. They were putting her in the situation where she might have a miscarriage." "She was severely dehydrated. She had diarrhea. And she was constantly vomiting during her time at the jail." "And so I was starting to get worried that the baby wasn't getting enough vitamins and nutrients." "At one point, she also fainted in her cell." "I felt so drained and so weak from being dehydrated. I was scared that I would lose my baby." "So the jail just had absolutely no basis in law and medicine and just basic humanity, and how you treat a human being, to put her through this." "You kind of like you are being labeled. You're an awful mother and you're putting yourself in a bad position for taking this medication and that is kind of they made me feel like. And then you feel even worse about it on top of being sick." "A woman does not lose her right to have a baby when she goes into jail pregnant. I don't think anyone would expect jails and prisons to have the authority to tell a woman that she cant continue her pregnancy to term. So when a woman goes into the system and happens to be pregnant, she of courses has the right to continue that pregnancy and she of course has the right to the medical care she needs to have a safe pregnancy. That's not something that you give up, that is not part of your punishment. So we felt it necessary to file this case to make clear that this is unconstitutional. Its cruel and inhumane to deny a woman, who is pregnant, medical treatment that is necessary so then she doesn't lose her pregnancy." "I don't think that people are above or beneath anybody else. Especially when it comes to medical treatment. Being civil to somebody, I think everybody has that right." The ultimate goal is going forward to make sure that this doesn't happen to anybody else." "Its just really alone, scared feeling." Learn More. Do more. aclu.org/reproductive-freedom