Virginia Pushes New Protections for Pregnant and Postpartum Women Behind Bars

RICHMOND, Va. — Bills to foster maternal health care resources for pregnant and postpartum incarcerated women have recently passed the General Assembly.

Del. Rae Cousins, D-Richmond, sponsored House Bill 860, which will establish lactation policies for pregnant and postpartum incarcerated persons in local and regional correctional facilities by December 2028. The bill originally called for a work group to review standards and regulations, but it was amended with more specific outcomes.

The Board of Local and Regional jails should consider best practices for screening individuals if they are lactating or have recently given birth. This could include research and consultation with formerly incarcerated persons, physicians, doulas, and others with direct experience, as well as other relevant stakeholders.

There could be additional expenses for regional and local jails in the amended substitute that passed the Senate, according to the state fiscal impact statement.

HB 860 passed the House and Senate unanimously.

“I’m just glad that we were able to get it done,” Cousins said. “What I’ve learned just in my very short time in the state legislature is that it can take a while to get legislation passed.”

Cousins is focused on improving maternal health care and criminal justice reform, something she was introduced to from the work Birth in Color was doing in an Arlington jail.

The organization works to ensure incarcerated pregnant women have access to maternal health resources and the proper nutritional standards, according to Cousins. She worked with the University of Virginia School of Law’s State and Local Government Policy Clinic to discuss replicating what was happening in Arlington throughout Virginia.

Current law has no lactation standards for state correctional facilities, according to Cousins. Now there will be standards that help incarcerated women breastfeed their babies, she said.

Accommodations would include manual or electric breast pumps and related storage bags, a private area for women to pump on a regular basis, and a freezer to make sure they have proper storage, according to Cousins.

The legislation was introduced last session as HB 2325 by Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News. Simonds’ bill did not advance from the House Committee on Rules.

Cousins also introduced House Bill 857. This bill mandates that any court can offer a home or electronic incarceration program to a pregnant or postpartum woman charged with a criminal offense, with exceptions.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously and had near-unanimous support in the House.

“Our goal is to make sure that anyone who is pregnant or nursing or postpartum is at home in their communities and able to take care of themselves and bond with their kids,” Cousins said.

HB 857 provides an alternative to incarceration in a jail facility. The bill creates an exception for pregnant or postpartum offenders to have home electronic incarceration unless they are a threat, according to Cousins.

“Judges and sheriffs would have to operate on that presumption when making bail decisions,” Cousins said.

Kenda Sutton-El, founder and president of Birth in Color, expressed her support for Cousins’ bills. Attachment between a mother and infant helps the baby’s stability, according to Sutton-El.

“We stand in support of this bill because we know that during the postpartum phase, maternal mortality is at its highest,” Sutton-El said.

Incarcerated mothers are still human beings who deserve the same opportunities as others, according to Sutton-El.

The Virginia maternal mortality rate has dropped to the national average since 2023, according to the Virginia Department of Health data. The General Assembly has pushed to improve maternal health in recent years.

By Julianna Brown, Capital News Service

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Richard T. Robertson School of Communication. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.