The folks over at Latinovations invited me, Senior Policy Analyst here at NLIRH, to write a guest blog for them. The blog, where I wrote about the experiences with health care immigrant Latin@s have in detention, was posted at La Plaza today:
As a reproductive health organization, sometimes people are surprised to learn that the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health does immigrants’ rights work. The truth is that immigration and reproductive justice are inextricably tied, and the health and struggles of immigrant detainees is an area that is particularly ripe for action.
To read more about health care and the experiences of pregnant women and transgender persons in immigration detention, make sure to check out the rest of the piece here.
The Rebecca Project and the National Women’s Law Center also collaborated on a Report Card that looks at data at a state by state level on the issue of Mother’s Behind Bars.
The full report has a comprehensive view on how Immigrant women are affected, and how shackling has been detrimental to the mother and child. Yet, it also offers alternatives such as family based treatments and prison nurseries that allow the mother to interact and bond with the child.
Check out the full report here http://www.rebeccaproject.org/images/stories/files/mothersbehindbarsreport-2010.pdf