In a devastating and horrific turn of events, a pregnant Missouri prisoner (arrested for a nonviolent drug offense) was shackled, mocked, and denied medical attention until she miscarried.
Tara Rhodes was pregnant when she was arrested, and was sent to a Missouri jail. She had given birth before (her previous children had been given up for adoption).
Her lawsuit against the Mississippi County Detention Center alleges that she began leaking fluids and experiencing severe cramps, and figured she was going into early labor. She pleaded for medical care, but was repeatedly told that she was faking it, even when her clothes were soaked with blood and the blood clots she was passing. She claims that the guards accused her of (somehow) collecting the clotted blood from elsewhere and dousing herself.
Unbelievably, it gets even worse than that:
“When she could no longer walk because of her condition, she was dragged across the floor on a mat from her sleeping quarters to a holding cell. When Ms. Rhodes pounded on the holding cell door for help, she was threatened with restraint to a chair.”
Once the authorities started to kinda-sorta believe her that she was actually experiencing this soul-crushing agony, they shackled her and transported her over 200 miles and nine hours. The baby did not survive.
This isn’t the only lawsuit of its kind in Missouri– there is another one that tells the exact same story.
Since there is a strong history of the GOP supporting prisons and the War on Drugs, we have to wonder why there is not more support for the preciousness of new life in prisons? The so-called right wing “pro-lifers” are tripping over themselves to create the most oppressive, misogynist legislation in the name of protecting babies. Yet, when there’s a mom-to-be in excruciating pain, begging for birth support, they shackle her and ignore her pleas.
Where is the preciousness of life now? Where are your arguments that every fetus deserves to be born? Or were they just a smokescreen to deny freedoms to women? And when women have already had their freedoms taken away in prison, you don’t need to worry about them anymore?
Women’s bodies are the battleground for an ideological struggle. Add to that the dialogue about crime and punishment, and pregnant women in prison are especially vulnerable. The real tragedy is that people like Tara Rhodes (and her baby) become cannon fodder in a battle of ideals.
Here’s a video of the horrors pregnant prisoners endured:
Featured image is by Dimas Ardian/Getty Images.
