New Indiana law bans shackling of pregnant inmates during labor - FOX 59 Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS – Some pregnant women in Indiana’s jails and prisons are still being forced to give birth while shackled, but a new law taking effect this summer will change that.

House Enrolled Act 1294, which has been signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb and passed the legislature with unanimous support, will ban the shackling of pregnant inmates during labor and delivery and for a period of time after the baby is born. The law takes effect July 1.

Several mothers who had been incarcerated advocated for the new law.

“It almost made me feel as though I didn’t deserve to have her,” said Christina Kovats of giving birth to her third child in 2012.

“Giving birth is supposed to be one of the happiest moments of your life,” Kovats said. “And mine is tainted and jaded by the experience that I had.”

Kovats was incarcerated at the time for neglect of a dependent after being under the influence and getting into a wreck with an elderly woman she cared for.

She had to give birth with one leg shackled to the bed the entire time – before and after her baby was born.

“I recall that the chain, I had piled it up at the end of my bed, and there’s periods of time that my leg would go numb and cramp up,” Kovats said.

“There were times when I saw women be shackled when it was completely unnecessary and occasionally unsafe,” said State Rep. Rita Fleming (D-Jeffersonville), the author of the new law and a former OB/GYN.

Fleming’s legislation prevents unnecessary restraints from being used on pregnant inmates. It also requires facilities to use the least restrictive restraints necessary during the second and third trimesters.

“Your balance is off some, and to be shackled and have to try to move around with ankle shackles or even worse, have your hands behind your back, poses a real risk to the patient and her fetus,” Fleming explained.

“It doesn’t take away from how difficult it is to hand your baby over immediately after giving birth,” Kovats said. “But you don’t have to feel like an animal doing so.”

The law will also require correctional institutions to make arrangements to have babies born in hospitals outside the facility when possible.

New Indiana law bans shackling of pregnant inmates during labor

Some pregnant women in Indiana's jails and prisons are still being forced to give birth while shackled, but a new law taking effect this summer will change that.

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source: https://fox59.com/indianapolitics/new-indiana-law-bans-shackling-of-pregnant-inmates-during-labor/

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