Legislative Memo: Rights of Pregnant Inmates

Every pregnant individual has a right to be treated with dignity and to have the necessary resources and supports that enable them to truly exercise agency in their reproductive decision making. However, the reproductive rights and wellbeing of pregnant inmates are dangerously disregarded.

Inherently, incarceration undermines reproductive autonomy. This is distinctly true for Black womxn and womxn of color, whose lives lie in the intersections of identities that are devalued and forced to exist within systems of oppression. The NYCLU strongly supports A.9965 (Rosenthal)/ S.7868 (Biaggi), which is one important step towards dismantling the overt and insidious ways in which the criminal law system fails to respect and uphold the reproductive health and rights of incarcerated pregnant people.