Opinion: Why does New York shackle women during labor?

This past weekend, a 33-year-old New Yorker who was nine months pregnant was forced to give birth in a court room in front of a judge and other spectators. She was handcuffed behind her back while in active delivery with no medical personnel in sight. She was there on low-level charges that were dismissed two days later. This is a damning example of how our criminal justice system treats pregnant people without basic dignity, respect and care.

It’s also a clear call to pass legislation that would ensure we treat all pregnant New Yorkers, including those in police custody or incarcerated, with the care they and their newborns deserve. That includes my Anti-Shackling bill and the CARE Act.

The Anti-Shackling bill would have prevented this woman from being handcuffed behind her back while nine months pregnant. If passed, it would prohibit the dangerous and degrading use of restraints on pregnant and postpartum individuals in law enforcement custody in all but the most extenuating circumstances. And it would ensure that no one in active labor, which is already a physically exhausting and vulnerable experience, is ever subjected to restraints.

What happened in that court room is outrageous, but it’s not an anomaly. Our state regularly dismisses the health and safety of pregnant people and their babies if they are in custody or behind bars.

Rebecca Figueroa, now an activist with New Hour, still remembers the trauma of giving birth while shackled in Suffolk County in 2006. Despite active labor and being surrounded by guards, she was handcuffed to the bed and restrained by a leg shackle. After delivery, Rebecca was restrained to the bed and struggled to breastfeed because of the foot shackle. “All I could do at that time was pray that my baby girl would be healthy,” she said. “But I was treated as a security threat and as less than human during one of the most vulnerable moments of my life.”

It’s not just the restraints that are the problem; it’s the egregious lack of prenatal and postpartum care. Nearly half of all pregnant incarcerated individuals in New York receive no prenatal care, and most of our prisons and jails are not equipped to deliver babies or to provide ongoing care to newborns and postpartum mothers. This lack of care increases the likelihood of postpartum complications, infant mortality, premature births and NICU placements.

In 2022, a woman held at Onondaga County’s local jail received no prenatal care, and was in labor for more than 30 hours by herself before the facility allowed her to see a physician. She was not transported to the hospital until after she gave birth, and her baby girl died hours later. The charges against her were later dropped. My bill – the Compassion and Reproductive Equity Act – would require state and local correctional facilities to provide quality prenatal, delivery and postpartum care, and could have prevented this unimaginable tragedy.

The CARE Act also addresses the routine and devastating separation of newborns from their mothers who are incarcerated. This cruel separation harms infant development and increases rates of recidivism.

Both of my bills deliver basic rights for pregnant New Yorkers.

More than 15 years ago, New York state began to acknowledge the inhumanity of shackling pregnant women and passed a law that provided some limits on their use. But that law includes overly broad exceptions and loopholes. For example, regardless of whether she presents any immediate risk, a woman in a jail or prison can be placed in restraints when trying to carry her infant to a medical appointment. The law also failed to provide any protections for people in law enforcement custody, like the woman who was recently forced to give birth in court.

What happened last weekend was horrific and highlights how pregnant New Yorkers and their babies are regularly disregarded in our state simply because they’re in custody. It is disappointing that we need legislation to outlaw such unfathomable treatment, but we do. The urgency to pass the Anti-Shackling bill and the CARE Act is clear.