Several accounts have surfaced of pregnant women in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers being denied access to medical care after having miscarriages, reported Buzzfeed News.
One 23-year-old woman, referred to under the pseudonym E, experienced a miscarriage four months into her pregnancy while being detained in an ICE center in San Luis, Ariz..
"An official arrived and they said it was not a hospital and they weren't doctors. They wouldn't look after me," E told BuzzFeed News via a phone call from the detention center. "I told them I am not well, I just lost a baby. And they said, 'That's not my fault, that's your fault.'"
A week after speaking to BuzzFeed News, E accepted voluntary deporting back to El Salvador.
Under the Obama administration, pregnant women were not detained except in extreme circumstances, a policy that the Trump administration undid in December. The original policy stated women are not to be held into their third trimester and that ICE is responsible for "ensuring pregnant detainees receive appropriate medical care including effectuating transfers to facilities that are able to provide appropriate medical treatment."
BuzzFeed News conducted a journalistic investigation and found women in immigration detention centers may not only be denied medical care, but are allegedly shackled around their stomach while transported between centers, and being both physically and psychologically abused.
"When the doctor examined me, he said there were many reasons for the miscarriage but it was likely because of the conditions they had me in," one woman told BuzzFeed News.
E, along with other women, told BuzzFeed News instances of miscarrying where CBP prison security and ICE jailers were unwilling to help them or seek medical attention. These claims are backed by five legal aid workers, four medical workers and two advocates working with ICE detainees.
To read the full Buzzfeed report, click here.
More articles on clinical leadership and infection control:
Baby's dying heart brought back to life with mitochondrial transplants
Physician burnout may cause more medical errors than unsafe care settings
Most patient family members hesitant to express safety concerns, study finds