New York police forced a woman to give birth handcuffed to her bed
'10.12.2018'
Source: Independent
An 27-year-old woman “struggled” in labor for almost an hour before the police lifted some restrictions and gave birth to a child, while her right hand remained handcuffed, according to the suit.
According to the lawsuit, an 27-year-old pregnant woman detained by police was forced to give birth in handcuffs on her hands, chained to a hospital bed in New York.
According to the information, the woman, who remains anonymous, was already in the process of giving birth when, on February 8, police took her out of the Bronx detention room and took her to the nearby Montefiore Medical Center.
Doctors at the medical center warned that restrictions in the form of handcuffs are illegal in New York and pose a serious danger to the woman in labor.
However, the officers said that the leadership of the Patrol Department obliged them to keep the woman, changing the state law.
According to a lawsuit filed with the US District Court in Manhattan, a woman struggled to give birth within an hour before the police removed some restrictions. She gave birth to a child, while her right hand remained handcuffed to a hospital bed.
The woman said that what happened humiliated her and injured her, and she could not tell her family about it.
The court demands compensation for the violation of the civil rights of a woman and asks the Police Department to change its policy so that employees never again chain the pregnant woman in custody.
“Handcuffing is an inhuman, cruel and pointless practice that has no place in New York in 2018,” the lawsuit says.
The police department did not immediately respond to the allegations. Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city’s legal department, said the agency “is very carefully studying these allegations.”
The woman’s lawsuit states that handcuffing a woman violated the state law of the year 2015, which prohibits restricting a woman during pregnancy or childbirth and during the eight-week postpartum recovery period.
The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists claim that using handcuffs, shackles and chains on pregnant women can lead to complications.
The National Commission for Corrective Medical Care, which accredits correctional institutions, strongly opposes the use of restrictions during childbirth.
