Pregnant Women Say They Miscarried In Immigration Detention And Didn't Get The Care They Needed
Pregnant women in immigration detention under the Trump administration say they have been denied medical care, shackled around the stomach, and abused.
Posted on July 9, 2018, at 1:44 p.m.
Ema O'Connor
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Nidhi Prakash
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Washington, DC
Reporting From
Washington, DC
Two weeks after arriving in the US seeking asylum, E, 23, found herself in a detention cell in San Luis, Arizona, bleeding profusely and begging for help from staff at the facility. She was four months pregnant and felt like she was losing her baby. She had come to the US from El Salvador after finding out she was pregnant, in the hopes of raising her son in a safer home.
An official arrived and they said it was not a hospital and they werent doctors. They wouldnt look after me, she told BuzzFeed News, speaking by phone from another detention center, Otay Mesa in San Diego. I realized I was losing my son. It was his life that I was bleeding out. I was staining everything. I spent about eight days just lying down. I couldnt eat, I couldnt do anything. I started crying and crying and crying.
Stuck in detention and having lost her baby, E says she wouldnt have come to the US seeking a safer life if shed known what would happen. She asked that her full name not to be used out of fear of repercussions while in detention and for her family back home.
My soul aches that there are many pregnant women coming who could lose their babies like I did and that they will do nothing to help them, she said.
More:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/pregnant-migrant-women-miscarriage-cpb-ice-detention-trump?utm_term=.uczoKJ5NP#.qcJ6OJ1Qo