Memo To The 8th Circuit Court–You Can’t Escape And Deliver A Baby At The Same Time
About the point where I was halfway dialated while giving birth to my first child, I informed his father and the assembled medical staff that I wanted to go home. They said to go ahead. Needless to say I quickly grasped the futility of the urge to run. Which is what makes the following court decision not only cruelly misogynistic, but just plain stupid. We’re guessing that not too many of the judges involved have ever given birth. Kudos to Heart for posting this:
“In a case out of Arkansas called Nelson v. Correctional Medical Services, the Eighth Circuit has concluded that the shackling of a pregnant inmate laboring to deliver a baby did not constitute an Eighth Amendment violation. Because, you know, birthing women are so likely to break and run, newborn baby, umbilical cord, and placenta in hand, we’d best make sure we chain them up from the time their labor pains begin. And even if they can’t run, who cares, they’re just women, and worse than that, they’re in prison. They deserve to be in chains.”
Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities, Misogyny, Women's Health, Maternal Health, Reproductive Justice, Human Rights
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