Migrant pregnant people, especially those who are undocumented and those in mixed-status families, are particularly vulnerable to the harmful impacts of abortion bans due to the barriers they face in accessing health care and the increased risk of criminalization based on immigration status. These barriers and risks include arbitrary Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoints, a five-year waiting period for legal permanent residents to enroll in public health insurance programs, agreements between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, and increasing anti-immigrant state policies. Individuals in immigration detention face additional threats to their reproductive health and overall well-being, including medically unnecessary gynecological procedures.
This administration’s crackdown on asylum seekers has included the brutal intimidation tactics of family separation and family detention. These policies have profound health implications for migrant adults and children and violate basic human rights, including the right to be free from torture and enforced disappearance. The traumatic stress caused by family separation compounds the physical harm and medical neglect experienced by migrant pregnant people and migrant parents.
Noteworthy cases in GA:
In summer 2025, Senator Ossoff's office released the findings of a months-long investigation into abuse in immigration detention. Specific allegations regarding pregnant immigrants in Georgia and other facilities include 14 reports of pregnant women being denied timely medical care, including urgent attention when needed. In one case cited by Ossoff's office, a woman miscarried alone in a hospital room after bleeding for days in custody.
In 2022, a nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Ocilla, Georgia reported coerced sterilizations of immigrant women that officials transferred detainees to a physician who sterilized the women without proper informed consent. The whistleblower described multiple forms of medical abuse, from failures to protect patients against COVID-19, to forced hysterectomies. This case echoed an existing 2020 class action lawsuit filed by former ICDC detainees against ICDC, ICE, Amin, Irwin County Hospital, and other federal and non-federal parties alleging that patients had undergone non-consensual and unnecessary gynecological procedures.
Pregnancy & Parenting:
migrant Experiences
Migrant pregnant people face some of the strongest obstacles to accessing reproductive healthcare after Dobbs, according to Women’s Refugee Commission. As of June 2024, 1.9 million undocumented migrant women live in states with abortion restrictions.
Many of these people are concentrated in border states that have some of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. They are also more likely to live in communities with very few healthcare services. As states become increasingly hostile to reproductive healthcare, including by imposing harsh financial and criminal penalties on healthcare providers, many communities are also facing a critical maternity care shortage.
On top of these barriers, immigrant women face additional dangers arising from dual efforts to criminalize abortion and immigration.
Reproductive healthcare is a fundamental right. Migrant communities have the right to be safe and to make decisions about their bodies, their families, and their futures.
According to data collected by the Guttmacher Institute, from 2008 to 2014, 16 percent of all people seeking abortions were migrants. The criminalization of abortion disproportionately harms migrant pregnant people’s access to abortion in multiple ways; one way is their restricted ability to cross state borders.
Criminalizing abortion also increases migrant pregnant people’s 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: A 2013 review of all people arrested for pregnancy-related crimes found that those arrested and charged were disproportionately Black women and Latinx migrants. This highlights the systemic bias and discrimination that these communities face and the urgent need for policies and practices that protect the health and rights of all pregnant individuals, regardless of their immigration status or race.
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, according to Women’s Media Center. 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.
The legal and medical jargon surrounding reproductive health care can be challenging to understand. The lack of information and resources available in languages other than English can create confusion and uncertainty for those seeking reproductive health care services, including abortion care, and can result in the misinterpretation of important legal and medical information. It can also contribute to delays in seeking health care services, resulting in more complicated health issues and ultimately negatively impacting the health outcomes of immigrants. The failure to provide accurate and comprehensive information in multiple languages is a violation of the right to access healthcare and is a form of discrimination.