Letter to the Editor

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Bob Puffer of Decorah):

If I'm in town on a Thursday at 9:00 a.m., I venture down to the NE Iowa Peace & Justice Center.  On October 26th, my heart was broken and my eyes were opened listening to the tales of women who are pregnant-in-prison and have little-to-no access to pre-natal, post-natal, basic having a baby information or the knowledge that they still possess many civil rights, even though they're imprisoned. Please, visit the link at the end of the original decorahnews.com article at http://www.decorahnews.com/news-stories/2017/10/17683.html
 
Two stories stand out from Thursday's discussion -- "details" of which didn't make it into this article:

- Prisoner Mom-To-Be (MTB) was a drug addict before incarceration, but is now "clean."  She wants to have a "sober birth," but the medical attendant from the prison system insists she be administered a narcotic derivative stating, "this isn't like those narcotics you took -- it won't make you high."  Attendant injects the narcotic into MTB's IV.  MTB feels she has failed her yet-unborn child because she didn't fight hard enough not to be injected with a substance that may cause her to relapse.

- Many women are subjected to strip searches and even cavity-searches immediately after giving birth, even though they have been under continuous watchful eye of prison guards over the past hours. I'll offer my undivided attention to someone able to explain how America becomes greater, more secure, more united by further degrading the by far most degraded population cohort in North America.

 I look forward to exploring ways in which I can assist this mission and I hope you will too. Their website is http://www.mnprisondoulaproject.org/