The Health Care Reform Bill, which passed into effect last Tuesday, excludes abortion  from the procedures covered by federally funded health insurance companies (except in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is at risk). The legislation was altered to omit abortion coverage in order to have a better chance at passing. This is a reminder that abortion rights, including funding and access, are still in jeopardy.

Check out this article for more information.

On March 23, 2010, Washington became the seventh state to prohibit the shackling of pregnant incarcerated women during labor and delivery.

Washington’s law is similar to statutes already passed in Illinois, California, Vermont, New Mexico, Texas, and New York.  Pennsylvania may soon join the list, as their State Senate recently passed an anti-shackling bill as well.

Across the nation, prisons, jails, and other penal institutions have routinely shackled pregnant women across the stomach and at the ankles and wrists during transport, labor, and even childbirth.  Women who have experienced these restraints recall the practice as humiliating and even potentially dangerous.  ”I felt like an animal who was giving birth in front of her masters,” said one former inmate who provided testimony in Washington.

A number of professional groups have condemned the practice of shackling pregnant women, including Amnesty International and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).  The judicial system has also weighed in:  the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held in a 2009 case, Nelson v. Norris, that shackling a woman in late-stage labor, in the absence of a security need, constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Advocacy groups in Rhode Island have been working hard to raise awareness about this issue.  The RI affiliate of the ACLU and RI NOW jointly filed an open records lawsuit against the Department of Corrections (“D.O.C.”) at the beginning of February.  They are contesting the agency’s refusal to release the entirety of its policies relating to the use of restraints on women prisoners when they are in labor, delivering a baby or in post-delivery recuperation.

In the meantime, legislation called the Healthy Pregnancies for Incarcerated Women Act has been introduced in both the Rhode Island House and Senate this session.  The bills establish standards for the treatment of pregnant prisoners; among other things, the proposed law would ban restraints during the transportation of a woman to a medical facility and during labor, delivery, or postpartum recovery.  An exception is carved out to allow the least restrictive restraint if an inmate is deemed to be a serious risk of physical harm to herself or others or is a flight risk.  However, the legislation would ban the use of leg or waist restraints while a woman is in labor or delivery in all circumstances.

If you are concerned about this issue, contact the members of the House Health, Education and Welfare Committee and/or the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Dust off your bowling shoes!  Our friends at the Women’s Health and Education Fund are hosting the first of what is hoped to be an annual fundraising event.  WHEF is a grassroots, all-volunteer organization that raises money to help low-income women access the reproductive health services of their choice.

Their bowl-a-thon, hosted with the support of the National Network of Abortion Funds, will take place at Town Hall Lanes in Johnston on May 2nd.  At this website, you can register a team, find out more information about the event, or make a donation in support of a bowler.  Questions can be directed to Bowl4whef@gmail.com.

Amnesty International recently issued a report entitled “Deadly Delivery,” which describes a maternal health crisis due to the high number of women in the United States who die while giving birth.  Some highlights from the report include:

• The likelihood of a woman’s dying in childbirth in the U.S. is five times as great as in Greece, four times as great as in Germany, and three times as great as in Spain.
• Every day in the U.S., more than two women die of pregnancy-related causes, with the maternal mortality ratio doubling from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 births in 1987 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006.
• Approximately half of the pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable and the result of systemic failures, including barriers to accessing care; inadequate, neglectful or discriminatory care; and overuse of risky interventions like inducing labor and delivering via cesarean section
• Black women in the U.S. are nearly four times as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related causes.

You can read the entire report here.

On a related note, the New York Times reported last week that the Caesarean section rate in the United States reached 32 percent in 2007, which is the highest rate ever recorded.  The article notes that when needed, “a Caesarean can save the mother and her child from injury or death, but most experts doubt that one in three women need surgery to give birth. Critics say the operation is being performed too often, needlessly exposing women and babies to the risks of major surgery.”

Welcome to the RI NOW Blog!  We will provide updates on national, state, and local news items that pertain to women and girls, as well as information about the 2010 RI legislative session.

If you are interested in submitting an article or blogging for us, send an e-mail to Vanessa Volz at vvolz@rinow.org.