![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pregnant-detainee-sq.jpg\")
A Cuban migrant family, including a woman who is pregnant, walk to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 29, 2023. (OSV News photo\/Brian Snyder, Reuters)<\/p>\nDozens of national pro-life leaders are calling for the reinstatement of federal guidance that would generally prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining pregnant women and new mothers in a letter sent to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cMedical advocacy groups and investigative reporting have documented prolonged detention of women with high-risk pregnancies, delayed emergency treatment, miscarriages, and stillbirths,\u201d the Feb. 13 letter, signed by more than 30 pro-life leaders across the ideological and religious spectrum, reads. \u201cSimply stated, unborn children are dying because of this policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Cuban migrant family, including a woman who is pregnant, walk to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 29, 2023. (OSV News photo\/Brian Snyder, Reuters)<\/p>\n
The letter addressed to President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons comes from two groups: Rehumanize International, a human rights nonprofit, and Secular Pro-Life, an atheist-led anti-abortion organization. Several Catholics signed the letter, including Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action; Charles C. Camosy, pro-life ethicist; and Leah Libresco Sargeant, author of \u201cThe Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s room for good faith disagreement on what our immigration law should be and how we enforce it, but it should be a foundational principle that we don\u2019t put innocent children in danger while attempting to punish their mothers,\u201d Libresco Sargeant told OSV News in emailed comments. \u201cWe should always try to avoid taking pregnant or nursing women into custody when justice and prudence allow it, and we should treat mother and child with proactive care on the rare occasions when they must be held. Current policy doesn\u2019t hold to those principles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herb Geraghty, communications director of Secular Pro-Life, confirmed to OSV News that the letter was sent via certified mail as well as faxed Feb. 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was heartened to see how many mainstream pro-life organizations and leaders were willing to sign on and show that there is a major constituency that cares about these women and children,\u201d Geraghty said in emailed comments. \u201cPro-lifers have historically been one of Trump\u2019s strongest voting blocks and so we are hopeful that the administration will take this request seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaders sent the letter following reports from The 19th, a news non-profit, and the American Civil Liberties Union documenting the conditions pregnant and parenting women say they face when arrested and detained. More recently, local news reported Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, is calling for the release of a two-month-old baby from a detention center in Dilley, Texas.<\/p>\n
The pro-life leaders\u2019 plea comes after ICE ended a presumption of release for pregnant detainees in 2017 during the first Trump administration. Nearly four years later, in 2021, ICE issued new guidance against arresting, detaining or taking into custody for an administrative violation women who are pregnant, postpartum or nursing unless their release is prohibited by law or exceptional circumstances exist.<\/p>\n
Multiple reports suggest that this guidance is no longer followed in practice, the letter says. Pro-life leaders also note that ICE\u2019s website lists the 2021 guidance as \u201carchived\u201d and \u201cnot reflective of current practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe write as pro-life organizations to urge the immediate reinstatement and enforcement of federal protections that prevent the detention of pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women, except in truly exceptional circumstances,\u201d their letter reads. \u201cPregnancy and early postpartum are medical states that require care that immigration detention facilities are structurally unable to provide.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, the signers make four requests in their letter: Reinstate and enforce the 2021 guidance; require field offices to obtain headquarters-level approval before detaining any pregnant, postpartum or nursing woman; publish semi-annual data on the number of pregnant, postpartum and nursing women in custody and the justification for each detention; and review current cases and release pregnant, postpartum and nursing women who do not pose genuine security threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to note that this ask is urgent (for the mothers) but moderate (as a matter of policy),\u201d Libresco Sargeant said of the letter. \u201cAvoiding holding pregnant and nursing mothers except when absolutely necessary is the approach ICE has taken previously, and all we\u2019re asking for is the restoration of the prior, proven to be workable policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter from Rehumanize International can be viewed here: https:\/\/www.rehumanizeintl.org\/post\/protect-immigrant-mothers<\/a><\/p>\n Read More Respect Life<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 OSV News<\/p>\n![\"Print\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/printer_famfamfam.gif\" "\\"Print\\"")
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