Sponsors (23)
Introduced March 10, 2025 by Patty Murray · Last progress March 10, 2025
The bill substantially improves medical care, safety, autonomy, and oversight for pregnant, lactating, and postpartum people in DHS custody, but does so at increased cost and administrative burden and with potential operational, privacy, and enforcement trade-offs.
Pregnant, lactating, and postpartum noncitizens are more likely to be released from detention and to receive pregnancy testing at intake plus continuity of care (medical records, medications, notification to attorneys/sponsors), reducing health risks from detention and enabling timely treatment.
Detained pregnant people will get safer, more comprehensive medical care in custody — including bans on restraints (except narrowly documented emergencies), access to prenatal, labor, postpartum, lactation, contraception, and substance-use treatment services — improving maternal and neonatal safety.
Facility-level transparency and accountability will increase through mandatory reporting of restraint incidents, tracking of pregnancy-related outcomes, public (redacted) summaries, and annual audits, making systemic problems easier for Congress and the public to identify and address.
Implementing intake testing, frequent reviews, expanded pregnancy-related services, reporting, audits, and training will raise operational and compliance costs for DHS and detention facilities, increasing costs for taxpayers.
Reducing routine detention of pregnant and related noncitizens could make it harder for authorities to hold individuals considered public-safety risks, shifting enforcement burdens to alternatives-to-detention and potentially complicating local enforcement.
The new frequent reporting, redaction, review, and training requirements create significant administrative burdens and recurring staff time commitments for facility administrators and DHS employees.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Bars routine detention and restraints of pregnant, lactating, and postpartum people in DHS custody; requires intake pregnancy testing, comprehensive pregnancy care, training, reporting, and weekly reviews for exceptions.
Prohibits routine detention and physical restraints of people in DHS custody who are pregnant, lactating, or within one year postpartum; requires pregnancy testing at intake, timely release except in narrow, documented exceptions, and weekly reviews of any continued detention. It also requires comprehensive pregnancy-related medical care (including prenatal, labor and delivery, postpartum, family planning, and abortion services), informed consent for medical treatment, limits on who may be present during exams and deliveries, staff training, facility agreements with nearby maternity hospitals, and public reporting and audits of restraint and pregnancy outcomes.