KFF Health News: Pregnancy Care Was Always Lacking in Jails. It Could Get Worse.

When Angela first reached out to us at Texas Jail Project, we could not have imagined the degree of absurdity in the way multiple systems and laws criminalized her poverty and reproductive rights during the first trimester of her pregnancy. She was a victim of SB 6 and SB 8 – arrested from her home at midnight after a neighbor called the police for a welfare check, for a failure to appear warrant on a 2 year old non-violent misdemeanor charge from the neighboring county.

Angela Collier’s arrest was “shocking and disturbing” because officers “blithely” took her to jail despite her miscarriage concerns, said Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit organization that studies incarceration. Bertram reviewed the body cam footage and Collier’s complaint.

Krishnaveni Gundu, as co-founder of Texas Jail Project, which advocates for people held in county jails, has lobbied for more than a decade to strengthen state protections for pregnant incarcerated people.

In 2019, Texas became one of the few states to require that jails’ health policies include obstetrical and gynecological care. The law requires jails to promptly transport a pregnant person in labor to a hospital, and additional regulations mandate access to medical and mental health care for miscarriages and other pregnancy complications.

But Gundu said lack of oversight and meaningful enforcement mechanisms, along with “apathy” among jail employees, have undermined regulatory protections.