The Anti-Migrant Crackdown Is Also a Reproductive Justice Crisis

"Her story is part of a disturbing rise in pregnant people suddenly being approached by border patrol officers or plain-clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. As ICE raids have devastated more families in recent months, immigrant and reproductive rights advocates have raised concerns about the impact of the raids on the reproductive health of those arrested, detained, and forcibly separated from their families."

"The harms inflicted on immigrants, especially the medical neglect and abuse of pregnant people, are not only an immigration justice crisis, they're a reproductive justice crisis as well. Reproductive justice - a movement and framework created by Black women and other women of color - is defined as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children or not have children, and parent children in safe and sustainable communities."

Pregnant people are increasingly being approached, arrested, or detained by border patrol and ICE agents, including cases occurring days before expected births. These enforcement actions have devastated families and raised urgent concerns about medical neglect, abuse, and interruptions to reproductive health care. Reproductive justice is framed as the right to bodily autonomy, to have or not have children, and to parent in safe communities, a framework developed by Black women and women of color. The combined erosion of abortion access and escalated immigration enforcement has produced near-dystopian conditions for immigrant communities, threatening both reproductive care and protection from deportation.

Read at Truthout