Sen. subcommittee to hold hearing in Atlanta after hearing from GA woman who gave birth in jail

ATLANTA — Two weeks ago, Channel 2 Action News reported about a Georgia mother who gave birth behind bars while serving a five-year prison sentence.

Now, members of the U.S. Senate will be in Atlanta to hear from more advocates, nonprofits and former prisoners and inmates about the conditions they faced while pregnant and in prison.

Jessica “Drew” Umberger testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights, where she told them the story of spending her entire pregnancy behind bars, and even gave birth to her daughter Jordyn there in 2018.

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She told Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Samantha Manning that prison staff “treated us like animals.”

“It was horrific…The morning I gave birth was probably the hardest. I was not allowed to say goodbye to her when I was taken back to the prison,” Umberger told senators on Aug. 1.

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Umberger said she was forced to have a Cesarean section (C-section) even though she wanted to have a natural birth. She said she was told it was departmental policy because she had one 18 years earlier.

According to an investigation by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff from that senate subcommittee, which he chairs, Umberger is just one of more than 120 cases of medical mistreatment and abuse of pregnant women in jails and prisons across America, all in the past six years.

The hearing, set to start at 9:30 a.m., brings a group of federal lawmakers, a former Clayton County inmate who gave birth at the jail in Jonesboro, and members of nonprofits who work with women in prison in Georgia. The hearing is expected to focus on the federal investigation into pregnant and postpartum services for women in custody.

“Pregnant women, whether free or behind bars, deserve the highest standard of care — and so do their newborns,” Ossoff said in a statement. “On Wednesday, I will convene another hearing as part of my investigation into the abuse of pregnant women in state prisons and jails.”

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