A bill in the Ohio Senate would overhaul the way pregnant prison inmates are treated. The legislation would ban the practice of shackling women in their third trimester. Ohio Public Radio's Andy Chow reports.
Democratic Senator Nickie Antonio of Lakewood says restraints, such as shackles or handcuffs, can seriously inhibits a woman’s ability to walk during the third trimester of pregnancy.
“We really see this as a dangerous thing first of all, that a woman would be more susceptible to falling or tripping, and that could create injury to her as well as to her unborn baby at that point.”
The bill, which has bipartisan support, would also ban restraints on a pregnant women during hospital transports, labor, delivery, and postpartum recovery.
Antonio says this opens the door to a larger issue of adapting the state’s prison policies for female inmates.
Read the text of the legislation here.