Lawsuit: NYPD forced woman to give birth in handcuffs

A lawsuit is claiming the New York Police Department forced a woman to give birth while shackled in handcuffs.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the woman she says she went into labor in February in a police holding cell in the Bronx. She says police took her to Montefiore Medical Center where they handcuffed her wrists to the bed and shackled her ankles.

More >> Lawsuit: NYPD forced woman to give birth in handcuffs

• Police Force Bronx Woman to Give Birth While Shackled, Lawsuit Says

How pregnant women are scamming desperate couples out of up to £50,000 by lying about giving up their babies

IT'S a heart-wrenching scene: a young boy being reunited with his birth mother in an airport after she gave him up for adoption ten years earlier.

"I'm excited to meet my birth mum," says Isaiah. "I've been waiting for 10 years. Some birthdays I'd cry because she wasn't there."

More >> How pregnant women are scamming desperate couples out of up to £50,000 by lying about giving up their babies

Kansas sees dozens of births by jailed women in past 4 years

Kansas jails are facing a rising likelihood of births behind bars amid a nationwide increase in women's incarceration.

The Hutchinson News reports that the Kansas Department of Corrections saw more than 45 babies delivered by women in its custody in the past four years. That comes as the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports the number of incarcerated women in the U.S. has been increasing at a rate 50 percent higher than men since 1980.

More >> Kansas sees dozens of births by jailed women in past 4 years

Teen Pregnancy Among Foster Care Youth in Travis County Still A Growing Problem

(Austin, TX)—In the U.S., there are more than 428,000 children in the foster care system on any given day, and more than 30,000 of those children live in Texas. Many youth in the foster care system experience feelings of neglect, abandonment, physical and/or mental illness, as well as addiction, which tremendously affects their physical and emotional wellbeing. Compounding these complex challenges is the high risk of teen pregnancy faced by foster care youth.


More >> Teen Pregnancy Among Foster Care Youth in Travis County Still A Growing Problem

LK Daily Report for 7/26/17 - Share this post so we can enlighten the sheep about the CPS mess...

Here are the headlines for today.  Check back soon!

This post could be updated at any time throughout the day.

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One of the foster brothers of slain Queensland schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer is to be sentenced in a Logan court.

Joshua Thorburn, 21, pleaded guilty in November 2016 to charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice following the death of Tiahleigh in October 2015.

More >> Sentencing for Tiahleigh's foster brother

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The state Children, Youth and Families Department has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit brought by a Washington state family who alleged the state agency failed to properly screen a Clovis-area foster couple accused of raping some of the children in their care, including a boy the couple later adopted.

More >> CYFD settles suit over sexually abused adopted child

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Just under 2,100 Pennsylvania newborns whose mothers had Medicaid were diagnosed with narcotics withdrawal syndrome last year, but only 972 infants were reported to county child welfare authorities as having been exposed to drugs in the womb. 

More >> Pennsylvania law keeps some drug-exposed infants off child welfare radar, advocates say

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In a previous column about the harm done to battered women and their children by child protective services agencies, I told the story of Sharwline Nicholson, lead plaintiff in a successful class-action lawsuit to stop the child protective services agency in New York City from taking children just because their mothers had been beaten. 

More >> Domestic Violence Survivors Say Mandatory Reporting Laws Made Their Lives Worse

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Maisha Joefield thought she was getting by pretty well as a young single mother in Brooklyn, splurging on her daughter, Deja, even though money was tight. When Deja was a baby, she bought her Luvs instead of generic diapers when she could. When her daughter got a little older, Ms. Joefield outfitted the bedroom in their apartment with a princess bed for Deja, while she slept on a pullout couch.

More >> In Case You Missed It: NY Times and DPA: Foster Care as Punishment: The New Reality of ‘Jane Crow’

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The details in the more than a thousand pages of documents the Department of Children and Families began releasing Monday are heart wrenching.

More >> Reports show Nubia Barahona abused since birth

Study shows link between foster care, multiple medications and teen pregnancy

Girls in foster care are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health conditions, be prescribed multiple medications and become pregnant as teenagers, according to a report by Wyoming researchers.

More >> Study shows link between foster care, multiple medications and teen pregnancy

Mom’s Drug Use During Pregnancy is Not a Crime Against Her Unborn Baby, Court Rules

The Associated Press reports a Michigan appeals court threw out a conviction against mother Melissa Lee Jones on Thursday, ruling that the state child abuse law does not apply to babies in the womb.

More >> Mom’s Drug Use During Pregnancy is Not a Crime Against Her Unborn Baby, Court Rules

I went into labor ... and tested positive for meth

Pregnancy.

It should be the most exciting time of a woman's life. You're gearing up to meet that tiny person who's been growing inside your body for almost a year and preparing for the biggest change you will probably ever experience.

More >> I went into labor ... and tested positive for meth

Texas Will Begin Tracking Pregnant Foster Youth

Texas Will Begin Tracking Pregnant Foster Youth

The teenage pregnancy rate in the United States, including Texas, continues to fall, according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Missouri looks at criminalizing using drugs while pregnant

Missouri looks at criminalizing using drugs while pregnant

A Missouri lawmaker is proposing that the state make it a crime for a woman to use drugs while pregnant in an effort he says could encourage women to seek treatment but that opponents say could do the opposite.

How some Alabama hospitals quietly drug test new mothers — without their consent

How some Alabama hospitals quietly drug test new mothers — without their consent

In Alabama, a positive drug test can have dire repercussions for pregnant women and new mothers. Their newborns can be taken from them. They can lose custody of their other children. They can face lengthy sentences in the most notorious women’s prison in the United States and thousands of dollars in fees and fines.

False Positive Drug Tests and CPS

False Positive Drug Tests and CPS

When an expectant mother arrives at a hospital, ready to deliver her baby into the waiting arms of medical staff, one of the many processes she is required to undergo is blood work. For many mothers, this isn’t even something they’re aware of. Samples are drawn and whisked away for analysis without a word. And for a woman in labor, it’s just one more needle poke, one more test, one more item on a laundry list of things she is ignoring right now. Her attention is elsewhere. On the baby she is delivering.

UK may approve three-parent pregnancies to end several genetic diseases

UK may approve three-parent pregnancies to end several genetic diseases

Later this year, legislators in the UK will vote on (and almost certainly pass) a bill to begin human testing on a new technique of so-called “three-parent” in-vitro fertilization. To understand why this might be helpful, and how a third parent can be medically useful, you need to understand the basics of genetic inheritance. The most important single insight is this: an egg is the factory of human life, while a sperm is just a nucleus with an outboard motor.

Note: Kind of like Dr Frankenstein attempting to perfect the human race, eh?

Pregnant woman has unborn baby girl forcibly removed by caesarean after social workers obtain court order because she had suffered a mental breakdown

Pregnant woman has unborn baby girl forcibly removed by caesarean after social workers obtain court order because she had suffered a mental breakdown

Social services forcibly removed a pregnant woman's unborn baby by caesarean section and put it up for adoption after obtaining a high court order on the grounds the mother had suffered a mental breakdown.

Shackled and pregnant: Wis. case challenges 'fetal protection' law

Shackled and pregnant: Wis. case challenges 'fetal protection' law

When Alicia Beltran was 12 weeks pregnant, she took herself to a health clinic about a mile from her home in Jackson, Wis., for a prenatal checkup. But what started as a routine visit ended with Beltran eventually handcuffed and shackled in government custody – and at the center of a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state’s fetal protection law.

Women Sell Positive Pregnancy Tests on Craigslist

Women Sell Positive Pregnancy Tests on Craigslist

Pregnant women across the country have taken to Craigslist to sell positive pregnancy tests for about $25 a pop.

Pregnancy Cost Child Welfare Supervisor Her Job: Lawsuit

Pregnancy Cost Child Welfare Supervisor Her Job: Lawsuit

A woman was fired from her job ensuring the welfare of children because she was going to have a child of her own, she claimed in a lawsuit filed in Will County court.

Report finds female inmates were sterilized in California prisons without state approval

Report finds female inmates were sterilized in California prisons without state approval

Doctors sterilized nearly 150 female inmates in the California prison system from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, with many of these women reporting that they were coerced into receiving the surgery, the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

War of the Womb

War of the Womb


The Jim Crow fueled Drug War has produced at least one pernicious effect that does not get enough attention in many of our discussions.  Pregnant women, especially low-income women of color, are the object of scrutiny by purported child protection agencies. While a white, upper class woman may not be scrutinized through urine screens during pregnancy, low income women and women of color are often subjected to tests to determine if “illicit” drugs are in their system.

Science Tells Us How To Have A Healthy Pregnancy; Should The Law Punish Women Who Don’t?

Science Tells Us How To Have A Healthy Pregnancy; Should The Law Punish Women Who Don’t?


Everyone agrees that a pregnant woman shouldn’t smoke crack or snort meth, right? And the consensus that they shouldn’t smoke cigarettes or throw back a six-back every night is fairly ironclad, as well. Beyond obviously harmful behaviors like alcohol and drug use, however, things get more complicated. And with good reason: Mothers’ own needs and health must be carefully balanced with the needs and health of potential children they’re carrying. After all, pregnant women aren’t simply baby incubating machines. But try telling that to the state of Alabama.