--- title: "So Many Women Are Miscarrying in Detention Centers That ICE Has Lost Count" description: "A horrifying number of women are miscarrying at ICE's immigration detention centers, where they're being treated horribly." date: "2026-09-18" modified: "2026-09-18" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins.md" url: "https://futurism.com/health-medicine/ice-immigration-federal-government-pregnancy-miscarriage-detention" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" --- # So Many Women Are Miscarrying in Detention Centers That ICE Has Lost Count ![Prisoners are seen inside a prison exercise yard at the California City Immigration Processing Center, the state's newest and largest ICE prison.]() *David McNew/Getty Images* Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities are horrifying for anybody, embodied by [deplorable living conditions](), [torturous treatment](), and a [sickening lack]() of quality healthcare. Unfortunately, a record number of pregnant women have been swept up and sent to such facilities — and it's hard to imagine a worse place to be during the prenatal period. Horrifying new reporting [by the *Guardian*]() took a hard look at the state of health care for pregnant women and teenagers held in ICE custody. During the first nine months of Trump's return to the White House, the agency recorded 18 miscarriages from women held in its custody, an already appalling statistic. Yet as the *Guardian* found, ICE's miscarriage records only go up to October of 2025, and any subsequent loss of pregnancy has been lost in the shuffle. That blatant disregard for critical health information underscores the nightmarish conditions pregnant women face in federal detention facilities. One woman, an asylum seeker from Nicaragua named Anabell, relayed her experience to the *Guardian*. After being detained at the end of a routine government check-in, Anabell says she was given two pregnancy tests, both of which came back positive. That was it, however — the standard blood test and dosage of prenatal vitamins were nowhere to be found, and the amount of protein she was given hardly changed. A month into her detention, Anabell told the *Guardian* she started to bleed. "I told them I need to see a doctor," she said, though ICE officers were unmoved. After spending another day in the ICE facility, Anabell's fellow detainees finally convinced guards to bring her to an emergency room, where she was shackled to a bed and monitored by three ICE agents. Through an interpreter, Anabell learned that she had lost the pregnancy. She has continued to face health complications including bleeding, vomiting, rashes, as well as hair and weight loss, for which she hasn't received any additional care. "I don't know what is going to happen to me," she told the paper. As Sarah Decker, a senior attorney at the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center told the *Guardian*, it's unlikely ICE is truly unaware of the amount of pregnant women in the department's custody, or the [horrible health conditions]() they face. "Many of the pregnant women that we've met at \[the South Louisiana processing center in\] Basile have told us that they disclosed their pregnancy to ICE officers, that they had to advocate for access to prenatal care and access to a gynecologist, that they needed emergency care for complications, Decker said. "So ICE is clearly aware and I think their desire to kind of obfuscate the access that people have to this data is intended to cover up the level of life-threatening medical neglect that’s happening in these facilities." **More on ICE:** *[ICE Reveals Horrific Plan to Outfit Agents With Electrocution Torture Gloves]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()