Sponsors (23)
The bill substantially strengthens health, privacy, and procedural protections for pregnant, lactating, and postpartum detained noncitizens — improving care and oversight — but does so at the cost of increased fiscal, operational, legal, and privacy trade-offs for DHS, facilities, contractors, and local governments.
Pregnant, lactating, and postpartum detained noncitizens (and the clinicians who treat them) will get clearer, enforceable medical protections — including defined postpartum period, intake pregnancy testing, mandated prenatal/postpartum/substance-use care, continuity-of-care on release, and minimum medical-care standards — improving health outcomes in custody.
Detained people who are pregnant or postpartum will be far less likely to be routinely restrained and medical staff can require immediate removal of restraints; facilities must document restraint use and retain records, which together reduce physical harm and increase clinician authority to protect patient health.
Pregnant, lactating, and postpartum noncitizens are prioritized for release to community care, subject to short detention exceptions and regular review, and receive safe-release procedures (medication transfer, medical records, notice to counsel/sponsors/providers) to improve continuity of care after release.
Taxpayers, DHS, detention facilities, and contractors will face significant new costs to provide expanded medical services, staffing, training, recordkeeping, audits, and reporting required by the Act.
Operational and administrative burdens — more frequent reviews, mandatory trainings, safe-release procedures, quarterly reporting, and record retention — will increase workload, may reduce staffing availability for other detention operations, and could require overtime or hiring.
Limits on detaining pregnant, lactating, and postpartum people and stricter restraint rules may constrain some immigration-enforcement options and complicate officer safety protocols in rare high-risk incidents, potentially impeding removals in public-safety cases.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Presumes release of pregnant, lactating, or postpartum detainees, bans most restraints, requires pregnancy testing, medical care access, staff training, reporting, and new DHS medical standards.
Introduced March 10, 2025 by Patty Murray · Last progress March 10, 2025
Stops routine detention and shackling of pregnant, lactating, and postpartum people held by or for the Department of Homeland Security. It requires pregnancy testing at intake, presumes release for those known to be pregnant or postpartum (with very narrow exceptions), bans most physical restraints during pregnancy and childbirth, mandates medical care and informed consent for pregnancy-related services, and imposes training, reporting, auditing, and regulatory requirements on facilities and DHS components.