A lawsuit was recently filed against the New York City Police Department alleging a pregnant woman was “forced to wear handcuffs on her wrists and ankles during labor.” The woman is referred to as Jane Doe throughout the suit and claims that, despite the protests of her medical staff, the “NYPD refused to remove the shackles, compelling Ms. Doe to labor in excruciating pain and forcing doctors to examine Ms. Doe with her feet and hands bound.”
A lawsuit was recently filed against the New York City Police Department alleging a pregnant woman was “forced to wear handcuffs on her wrists and ankles during labor.” The woman is referred to as Jane Doe throughout the suit and claims that, despite the protests of her medical staff, the “NYPD refused to remove the shackles, compelling Ms. Doe to labor in excruciating pain and forcing doctors to examine Ms. Doe with her feet and hands bound.”
The lawsuit further states:
“Moments before Ms. Doe delivered her daughter, a growing chorus of outraged doctors convinced the NYPD to briefly remove her shackles. At 6:14 a.m., Jane Doe gave birth to her daughter. Shortly after she gave birth, NYPD officers again shackled her, ignoring the doctors’ continued pleas. Ms. Doe struggled to feed her new baby with one arm.”
According to the suit, the woman’s “doctors at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx ‘express concern’ both that the baby was ‘in some distress’ during the delivery, and that she ‘experienced heavy bleeding’ after the delivery.”
The defendants in the case include the “City of New York, the NYPD, and five directly named officers and other anonymous officers.”
Why was Ms. Doe in shackled during her delivery, though? How did the situation arise? Well, she was arrested back on February 7 “in connection with a family dispute with her ex-partner that happened five months” prior. February 7 was only “two days before her due date,” and there was “no urgent need to arrest Plaintiff that day by any stretch of the imagination,” according to the suit.
Is it common practice to shackle pregnant women? No. In fact, shackling pregnant women is widely “condemned, including by the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Public Health Association.” Even correctional groups condemn the practice, and the Correctional Association of New York even called it a ‘barbaric and illegal’ practice. Back in 2009, the entire state of New York even “banned the use of shackles on women throughout labor, delivery, and recovery.”
It should also be noted, that after her arrest, Jane Doe “never struggled, resisted, or acted in any way that would even remotely support the use of restraints.” In fact, Ms. Doe was so terrified for her baby that she allegedly complied with every order given to her. The suit further states:
“Ms. Doe was terrified for herself and for her baby. She feared that she would deliver the baby alone in a cell at the 47th Precinct without medical help. She feared that after she gave birth, the NYPD would take her baby away…She desperately wanted her partner and her own doctor to be present for the birth, at her chosen hospital, consistent with her birth plan. But she remained compliant, urging herself to stay calm for the safety of her baby. These events are seared in Ms. Doe’s memory; she experiences nightmares and relives the trauma over and over.”
This isn’t the first time the NYPD has come under fire for restraining a pregnant, laboring woman while in custody. Last year, the department was sued for the same exact type of incident Ms. Doe experienced. Speaking on the matter, Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said this repeated incident exposes many “failures on the part of the NYPD.” She added:
“This raises the problem of not just the police department failing to respect the rights of women, but failing to have in place the systems that any well-run organization would have to learn from their mistakes. Why wouldn’t they fix the problem that they paid to resolve around the same time? I think the fact that anybody at any level of the NYPD would think that shackling a pregnant woman as she’s about to go into labor and throughout — in 2018 — is stunning, and a sad reflection on the state of affairs in the NYPD.”
Sources:
NYPD accused of ‘shackling’ pregnant woman until ‘moments’ before giving birth: Lawsuit
NYPD Accused of Forcing Woman to Give Birth While Chained to Bed
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