Pregnant Female Prisoners Must Remain In Shackles During C-Section Procedures?
“But for the grace of God go I.” My late aunt drilled that value into my six-year old head and it has never left. An article regarding a New York politician recently caught my attention. When New York State enacted a bill to ban the shackling of pregnant prisoners, a New York State Assemblywoman objected. The article goes on to discuss the case of Jeanna M. Graves, who, in 2002 was arrested on a drug charge and began a three year sentence. Graves was pregnant with twins and while in labor, was handcuffed during her entire C. Section. How utterly ridiculous.
Before a C. Section begins, a patient is usually given either an epidural or spinal anesthesia. On rare occasions, she is put to sleep with general anesthesia if the baby must be delivered emergently. On all accounts, the patient’s legs will either be numb from anesthesia or she will be sleeping. Why then does she need shackles? She’s certainly not in a position to run. Although I addressed this issue last August, it needs to be revisited again.
Women’s health and pregnancy should not be political agendas. I recently tweeted about another controversial article that blamed the reduced workforce in Memphis on teen pregnancy. Yes, it’s true that 49% of teen pregnancies are unplanned and unwanted but somehow the teens eventually mature and become productive human beings for the sake of their children. Our workforce problems stems from the outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas, not teenage pregnancy.
Jeanna Graves was not perfect but neither did she commit a heinous crime. She used drugs and had a self-inflicted disease. In the course of my professional career, I have witnessed the most egregious acts corruption, fraud, deception and medical negligence, all under the rouse of helping the poor yet not one administrator ever left the building in shackles or seen the inside of a county jail.
Here’s a question for New Yorkers: Would you really elect someone who approves of shackles on pregnant to be your congressional representative?
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
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