The Activists Fighting for Dignity for Incarcerated Pregnant Women

Incarcerated women regularly face poor treatment during their pregnancies, including inadequate nutrition to support growing a healthy child, harmful cavity searches, and delivery while shackled or in solitary confinement. Even when gains are made in some parts of the country, there is no national standard of treatment for incarcerated pregnant women despite women being the fastest growing prison population in America, and the majority of those women are already mothers.

Prison doulas and legislative interventions can be a lifeline for incarcerated pregnant women. But the most important solution is to abolish prison births altogether.