Newly obtained government records are raising serious concerns about the treatment of pregnant women and their unborn children in U.S. immigration detention, after data revealed at least 18 recorded miscarriages while women were in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody during the first nine months of 2025.
According to The Guardian, ICE recorded 18 miscarriages between January and September 2025 but does not have miscarriage data covering the months after Oct. 3, 2025. The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed that the agency lacks such data from October 2025 through June 2026.
The missing records come as the number of pregnant women held in immigration detention increased. According to ICE records obtained by The Guardian, at least 87 pregnant women and adolescents were detained in October 2025, rising to 101 in November. The report noted that the figures could be an undercount because not every woman entering detention received a pregnancy test.
The findings present a troubling question from a Catholic perspective: Are vulnerable mothers and their unborn children receiving the care and protection owed to every human person?
The Church’s defense of human dignity does not depend upon a person’s citizenship or immigration status. Nor does concern for immigrants require Catholics to deny the legitimate authority of governments to enforce immigration laws. But enforcement of the law can never erase the inherent dignity of those placed in government custody—especially pregnant women and unborn children who depend upon others for their care.
Several women interviewed by The Guardian alleged serious difficulties obtaining prenatal or emergency medical treatment.
One woman, identified as Anabell, learned she was pregnant after being detained in Kentucky. Weeks later, she began bleeding heavily. According to her account, she told detention personnel that she needed a doctor and submitted an emergency medical request stating, “This is URGENT, please. I am pregnant and have been bleeding since yesterday … I am scared for the baby.”
She was eventually taken to an emergency room, where she learned that she was no longer pregnant. Hospital records reviewed by The Guardian indicated that she should receive follow-up care at a women’s health clinic, but Anabell said she had not been provided subsequent checkups despite continuing symptoms.
Another woman, identified as Laura, was detained while experiencing a high-risk pregnancy. According to The Guardian, she reported persistent abdominal pain and bleeding and said she had not been permitted to see an OB-GYN. In a legal declaration, Laura said a physician at the detention facility determined that she needed specialist care, but “facility administration has failed to approve or schedule the consultation for me.”
Medical experts cautioned against assuming that detention conditions themselves caused individual miscarriages. Deborah Ottenheimer, an obstetrician-gynecologist and medical expert with Physicians for Human Rights, told The Guardian that determining the cause of a miscarriage can be difficult.
But she sharply criticized the reported level of medical care.
“These incarcerated women are not getting the prenatal visits that they’re supposed to get. They’re not getting high-risk prenatal visits if they need them. And if they do miscarry, the medical care they receive is minimal to none,” Ottenheimer said.
ICE’s own policies call for significantly more protection.
A 2021 ICE directive states that the agency should generally avoid detaining people known to be pregnant, postpartum or nursing unless release is prohibited by law or exceptional circumstances exist. The directive also requires monitoring of their health and continued evaluation of whether detention remains appropriate.
The directive published by ICE further requires officials to ensure that pregnant detainees receive appropriate medical and mental health care and calls for regular reevaluation to determine whether continued detention is appropriate.
ICE detention standards also state that pregnant detainees should have access to prenatal and specialized care and that women with high-risk pregnancies should be referred to physicians specializing in high-risk pregnancy.
DHS maintains that those requirements are being followed.
“The 2021 directive is still in place,” DHS spokesperson Chandler Rebel told The Guardian. “Pregnant women receive regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support, and accommodations aligned with community standards of care.”
That account stands in stark contrast to allegations made by some detainees and their attorneys.
The disappearance of miscarriage statistics has also raised questions about government accountability. According to documents obtained by The Guardian, ICE stopped receiving the data after changing the contractor responsible for processing medical claims. The agency said the transition left it without miscarriage figures for subsequent months.
The number of miscarriages alone cannot establish why those pregnancies ended. Miscarriage can occur for many reasons, and the available evidence does not establish that ICE detention caused the pregnancy losses.
But that uncertainty does not lessen the government’s responsibility to provide appropriate medical care to pregnant women in its custody.
For Catholics, the principle at stake reaches beyond the country’s bitter immigration debate. Every human life possesses God-given dignity—from the unborn child to the mother carrying that child, regardless of her nationality, legal status or circumstances.
A nation may enforce its laws. It may secure its borders. But when the government takes a pregnant woman into its custody, it also assumes a profound responsibility for the human lives placed in its care.
The allegations described in this report deserve serious scrutiny—not because immigration law should cease to be enforced, but because the dignity of human life must never become collateral damage in its enforcement.
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