Sponsors (23)
The bill substantially raises health, safety, and transparency protections for pregnant, lactating, and postpartum detained noncitizens — improving medical care, limiting detention and restraints, and increasing oversight — at the cost of higher operational and compliance expenses, potential enforcement constraints, and privacy, legal, and implementation challenges.
Pregnant, lactating, and postpartum noncitizens are much less likely to remain detained — the bill requires prompt release preferences, short maximum pre-removal detention, and regular custody reviews — reducing health risks from prolonged confinement.
Detained pregnant and postpartum people gain substantially improved medical care — mandatory pregnancy testing at intake, access to prenatal/postpartum care, substance-use treatment, contraception, and required minimum medical standards based on national guidelines.
Routine use of restraints on pregnant and postpartum detainees is sharply limited, clinicians can order immediate removal of restraints, and facilities must document restraint use, improving safety and clinician authority.
Federal, local, and contractor detention authorities will face substantial new operational and medical staffing costs — expanded care, reporting, records retention, and training obligations will likely increase taxpayer and facility expenditures.
Limiting detention for pregnant/lactating/postpartum people and imposing release preferences may constrain enforcement options and complicate removals in some cases, raising public‑safety and operational challenges for authorities.
Collecting and sharing medical information for releases and publishing redacted restraint and outcome data create privacy and stigmatization risks if protections or redactions are inadequate.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Presumes release and forbids routine shackling of pregnant, lactating, or postpartum noncitizens in DHS custody; mandates testing, care standards, notice, training, reporting, and narrow exceptions.
Official title: Safeguard the humane treatment of pregnant and postpartum women by ensuring the presumption of release and prohibiting shackling, restraining, and other inhumane treatment, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 10, 2025 by Patty Murray · Last progress March 10, 2025
Prohibits routine detention and shackling of people who are known to be pregnant, lactating, or within one year postpartum while in Department of Homeland Security custody, and requires pregnancy testing, release presumptions, medical care standards, notice and training, reporting, and oversight. It allows only narrowly defined, time-limited exceptions for public-safety or flight risks, imposes recordkeeping and public reporting requirements, and directs DHS to adopt regulations implementing these protections across facilities.