Across the country, pregnant women have found themselves subjected to incarceration, and harsh treatment in prison, based a concern for the well-being of the fetus that they are carrying. Here in Maine, I handled a case this summer of a woman who was sentenced to jail for the duration of her pregnancy, because the Court believed that this was the best way to ensure her access to medical care. Ultimately, the Court was made aware of the strong social support available, and let my client out of jail. She gave birth in a hospital, not in shackles in a prison clinic. This week, Double X, an online journal affiliated with Slate.com, discussed the case, along with cases like it from across the country. This is an terrible trend, with disturbing implications--as a general matter, we have hopefully gotten away from the idea of locking people up "for their own good" whether it is because they can't pay a debt, or because they suffer from mental illness, or because they are pregnant. But, as my co-counsel at the ACLU Reproductive Rights Project and the ACLU HIV/AIDS projects can tell you, those ideas are making a come-back.
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