This treatment of pregnant immigrants — not to mention many pregnant citizens in the United States more generally — flies in the face of the global community’s affirmation that everyone has a right to privacy and physical health care.
, one immigrant woman in Texas was trapped in an unwanted pregnancy because her immigration case prevented her from traveling more than 70 miles, which she needed to do to obtain an abortion.
The stakes of crossing state lines and breaking the law are also generally much higher for undocumented immigrant women than their native counterparts because they could face deportation. Many immigrants’ green card status depends on following local law, and those without green card status may not be able to risk crossing state lines to access safe and legal abortion.
Criminalizing abortion also increases pregnant immigrants’ chances of arrest for common pregnancy complications such as miscarriage. There is already a bias against women of color regarding pregnancy-related crimes in the United States: Aof all women arrested for pregnancy-related crimes found that those arrested and charged were disproportionately Black women and Latina immigrants.
The current political climate and anti-immigrant sentiment in many parts of the United States have created a climate of fear and uncertainty for pregnant immigrants seeking medical care. This fear is compounded by the fact that many pregnant immigrants may be unaware of their rights to health care and may fear seeking care due to concerns about deportation or other legal consequences.
As outlined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (
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