Senate committee investigating abuse of pregnant women in prisons

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights held a held a hearing Wednesday as part of an investigation it has launched into reports of abuse of pregnant women in jails across the nation.

“The testimony and evidence we’ll hear here today, however, presents a shocking and horrifying picture of pervasive abuse and mistreatment of pregnant women in American prisons and jails,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff, (D-GA), who is the chair of the subcommittee.

Sen. Ossoff convened the hearing after he said that the committee had identified hundreds of reported human rights abuses against pregnant and postpartum women who were serving in prisons and jails in a number of states.

He said the committee found instances of women having to give birth in showers and hallways while incarcerated, being refused care after saying they were going into labor, babies dying, and babies being immediately taken away from mothers in jail.

The investigation has been months in the making but committee members heard firsthand accounts on the conditions Wednesday from three witnesses.

“My granddaughter was not born in a hospital as I had believed, but into a prison toilet. After my daughter’s desperate cries for help went unanswered,” said Karine Laboy, a Connecticut woman who’s daughter had a child while she was in a state prison.

“I saw several babies born in the hallway. When I was there. I remember women screaming for help and praying out loud for medical attention,” said Jessica Umberger, who gave birth to a child while in a Georgia state prison.

Senator Ossoff said that the investigation is far from over and more fact finding needs to happen before they start to look into legislative solutions that Congress can take.

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