The "Pro-Life" Response To A Stillbirth In ICE Custody Is ... Nonexistent

[Judi Lynn]

By MIRANDA YAVER
a day ago

In this op-ed, political scientist and Tufts University lecturer Miranda Yaver unpacks why the lack of Republican response to a Honduran detainee's stillbirth is so hypocritical.


While officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were declaring that a detainee's stillbirth did not constitute a death in their custody, Republicans in the Senate were championing legislation to protect fetal rights. Just not the rights of that fetus.

A Honduran woman detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Port Isabel Detention Center — which has a history of problems with medical care — was 27 weeks pregnant, despite ICE’s policy is that it would not detain pregnant people who are in their third trimester “absent extraordinary circumstances.” According to ICE, the woman was examined after complaining of abdominal pain, and she prematurely delivered a stillborn baby boy before emergency services arrived to transport her to the hospital. ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) hold that stillbirths are not treated as “in-custody deaths.”

This case is a tragedy in itself, but it is one that could potentially have been avoided if ICE followed its previous policy of not detaining pregnant people, instead releasing them on bond or supervised release. The Trump administration ended that policy in March 2018.

But this case also calls attention to the hypocrisy of which lives Republicans value and which they disregard.

More:
https://www.bustle.com/p/the-pro-life-response-to-a-stillbirth-in-ice-custody-is-nonexistent-16274063