Alyssia Moulton and baby A.M. (Provided).
A Kentucky woman in isolated pretrial detention was forced to give birth on a toilet in a Tennessee jail, a lawsuit filed this week alleges.
Alyssia Moulton, 34, is suing Southern Health Partners, the medical provider for the lockup facility in Montgomery County, in federal court — along with several other named and unnamed defendants.
The 65-page lawsuit, inclusive of exhibits, accuses staff of deliberate indifference to the mother’s suffering and medical needs. The filing accuses staff and the medical provider of medical negligence and due process violations. The lawsuit includes the baby as a plaintiff in the case, alleging all the defendants violated his due process rights.
Moulton’s son is identified only as “A.M.” in the filing.
The allegations described in the filing combine to create a chilling narrative that reads not entirely unlike a medical nightmare.
“Ms. Moulton was alone in her jail cell when she delivered the baby,” the lawsuit reads. “She delivered the baby into the toilet. As a result of delivery into the toilet, A.M. suffered various injuries, including a blood infection of Gram-Positive Cocci and an eye infection of Citrobacter freundii.”
On Aug. 19, 2023, Moulton was detained on a burglary charge, the filing notes. She only learned of her pregnancy after being tested by Southern Health Partners employees while in jail that same day.
One medical evaluation related to the pregnancy test was conducted by a nondoctor health care worker, according to the lawsuit. But medical care did not continue in this vein, the lawsuit alleges, and Moulton was never scheduled “at any point” for a doctor’s evaluation.
“The failure to schedule Ms. Moulton for a routine pre-natal medical evaluation by a licensed physician was especially egregious,” the lawsuit alleges, because “Ms. Moulton 1) was unaware she was pregnant, 2) had been using opioids while pregnant 3) was unsure of her last menstrual period, 4) even her last menstrual period as reported would make her at least 24 weeks pregnant, and 5) during her entire pregnancy, she had never been evaluated by a medical doctor.”
The lawsuit also alleges the mother was never given an ultrasound — even though jail staff knew she was pregnant.
Then, the expecting mother was allegedly left to her own devices.
“Ms. Moulton was housed in medical isolation, where she spent 23 hours per day in her cell, with 1 hour per day out of her cell,” the lawsuit reads. “This housing condition constituted solitary confinement. Ms. Moulton was housed in solitary confinement for the duration of her incarceration at the Montgomery County jail, from 8/19/23 to 8/27/23 (until delivery of her baby and transport to the hospital).”
The lawsuit cites an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) opinion on how to treat pregnant inmates:
Pregnant people should not be placed in solitary confinement. The mental health effects on people placed in restrictive housing can be compounded in pregnancy (37, 57). Being in solitary confinement can limit access to timely health care, especially when urgent pregnancy concerns arise. Such housing also limits mobility and often by default results in bedrest, which has documented harms in pregnancy (44). Furthermore, the practice of routinely placing pregnant people in medical isolation for the sole purpose of proximity to health care staff is not recommended when such arrangements limit access to programming, exercise, and social interaction.
Moulton goes on to say that she repeatedly complained to medical staff about contractions on the morning of her son’s birth. The lawsuit contains a log entry regarding a “nursing staff” visit where one of the defendants wrote: “No palpable contraction observed.”
The lawsuit alleges none of the nurses “took Ms. Moulton’s complaints of contractions seriously” but, rather, “consciously disregarded the foreseeable risk that Ms. Moulton would imminently deliver her baby.”
“As a result of Defendants’ conscious disregard of this risk, Ms. Moulton gave birth alone in a jail cell, delivering her baby into the toilet,” the lawsuit reads. “The jail cell in which Ms. Moulton was forced to deliver her baby alone is not a medically adequate facility.”
The filing alleges Moulton was returned to solitary confinement two days after giving birth. The mother and child reunion occurred one week later, on Sept. 5, 2023, the lawsuit says.
Alyssia Moulton and baby A.M. (Provided).
Moulton also claims her drug withdrawal treatment was close to nil.
“At no time did any employee of SHP educate Ms. Moulton about the availability of medication to manage her withdrawal symptoms,” the lawsuit alleges. “At no time did any employee of SHP provide Ms. Moulton with appropriate medications to manage her withdrawal symptoms. The failure to educate Ms. Moulton about the risks of withdrawal — especially while pregnant — or to provide her with appropriate medication options to manage her withdrawal symptoms was contrary to the recommendations of ACOG.”
One of the defendants, for their part, in the aforementioned log entry, wrote that Moulton “has been refusing detox medication.”
Moulton’s lawsuit disputes this, saying she “was never offered detox medication” and “never signed” a refusal of treatment form.
The plaintiff is suing on four counts in the Middle District of Tennessee. She is seeking compensatory damages for future pecuniary and non-pecuniary losses, physical and mental pain, humiliation, discomfort, fear, anxiety, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of liberty, privacy, and sense of security and individual dignity, and other non-pecuniary losses. The lawsuit also seeks punitive damages and attorney’s fees.
“We look forward to bringing this important case on behalf of Ms. Moulton and her child,” Moulton’s civil rights-focused lawyer Christopher Smith told Law&Crime. “This case raises important questions about the incarceration of pregnant women. Tennessee has one of the highest rates of female incarceration in the nation, which itself has one of the highest rates of female incarceration in the world. We hope this lawsuit shines a light on this often-overlooked social issue and raises awareness of the civil rights of pregnant inmates.”
Law&Crime reached out to Southern Health Partners for comment on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
