JUSTICE FOR HEAVEN AND AVA: DIGNITY FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN
This is a call for femme allyship of the most vital kind - the kind that demands that women are not treated like animals. Do not turn your back on this ongoing dehumanization of Black women.
Click HERE to HEAR from /SEE Erica Thompson, known as Heaven, tell her story of her arresting officers' refusal to listen to her screams of labor pain/pleas for help and the wanton neglect and cruelty by Alachua County Jail that led to her newborn's death after jail personnel finally transported her to the hospital once they saw she gave birth to her baby herself in her cell.
Click HERE to READ Heaven's original Facebook post.
There are many things YOU CAN DO:
Click HERE to HEAR from /SEE Erica Thompson, known as Heaven, tell her story of her arresting officers' refusal to listen to her screams of labor pain/pleas for help and the wanton neglect and cruelty by Alachua County Jail that led to her newborn's death after jail personnel finally transported her to the hospital once they saw she gave birth to her baby herself in her cell.
Click HERE to READ Heaven's original Facebook post.
There are many things YOU CAN DO:
- Donate directly to Heaven Thompson HERE.
- Familiarize yourself with the Tammy Jackson Act that the Dignity Coalition got passed in 2020 that specifically addressed and outlawed this injustice HERE.
- Support AVA'S LAW this coming legislative session, introduced last year as SB 1426 (Pregnant Women in Custody) and HB 1115 (Health Care for Women in the Criminal Justice System), under which this tragedy could not have happened. Read about this session's beginning push for Ava's Law by Senator Shevrin Jones HERE.
- TALK TO YOUR CIRCLES - MAKE THIS REALITY OF BLACK WOMEN known so it can come to an end. DEMAND DIGNITY.
END STATE SANCTIONED MEDICAL KIDNAPPING
Medical kidnapping refers to the taking of children from Black mothers by Department of Children and Families (DCF)/police, most recently uplifted in the story of former American Idol contestant Syesha Mercado.
To learn more about the medical kidnapping trend in Florida, click HERE, and for more about Syesha Mercado's story, who has now been reunited with her newborn but remains separated from her son, click HERE.
To learn more about the medical kidnapping trend in Florida, click HERE, and for more about Syesha Mercado's story, who has now been reunited with her newborn but remains separated from her son, click HERE.
