The exquisite hypocrisy of this “pro-life” presidency

In a society that truly values mothers and babies, postpartum moms would be surrounded by care and support. First time mom Nayra Guzmán certainly found herself surrounded earlier this year. But not with care and support. She was surrounded by ICE agents brought to her by an administration that falls over itself claiming to care about moms and babies. Led by a president who says he’s going to protect women whether we “like it or not”.

There are countless horrific examples of the exquisite hypocrisy of their hollering about protection for women and care for babies. This is just one of them.

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The Illinois 22 year old was already experiencing a difficult transition into motherhood. She had a long and difficult delivery that was marked by pre-eclampsia and that culminated in a c-section. The baby was unable to eat or breathe on her own, and Nayra was discharged to home while the baby stayed in the NICU.

Just over two weeks after giving birth, Nayra and her family were headed to the hospital to feed the baby and participate in a meeting about her prognosis and care. Nayra buckled her seatbelt and then looked up to find herself surrounded by white SUV’s. And she knew.

“In that moment, I just felt fear. I thought, ‘The government is going to take custody of my daughter. I’m going to be in detention and I won’t be able to do anything for my daughter.’”

The family showed the agents their work permits and gave information about their pending asylum case. They explained they were on the way to the NICU to see Nayra’s baby. But they were still detained, and Nayra was told she’d likely be going to a longer-term detention facility in Kentucky.

She was then brought to Broadview Processing Center, a facility that has come under intense scrutiny for its deplorable conditions. This new mom, who was still trying to produce breast milk for her baby and recover from her c-section, was given limited access to food and water, and no medical care. She spent the night on a bench. You can read more about her ordeal in this piece from 19th News, a piece I relied on for the telling of this story. Thankfully she was released without being sent to a longer term detention facility. But she was released sick and unable to visit her baby for the next week — resulting in her breast milk drying up. And that was not the only long tern consequence of her detention. Again, Nayra’s words:

“When I first got home, I felt relieved. But the next day, I had to face reality. I was telling myself, ‘You have to leave the house and see your baby.’ But I had this horrible fear that they would detain me again.”

Can you imagine being afraid to see your sick baby in the NICU because you fear being abducted and sent away? Having to temporarily abandon your newborn in the hospital because you worry you will be disappeared and therefore abandon them forever? For too many right now, they don’t have to imagine this. They are living it.

A dear friend of mine is in maternal and child health work in another city currently under siege by ICE. Her organization is being asked by new moms to attend to their still hospitalized babies so those moms don’t have to risk going outside. Thank goodness those moms have my friend’s incredible organization to rely on in this time of terror, but what about those that don’t? And even for the moms who receive my friend’s care, the trauma of separation from their newborns is hard to fathom. They miss the opportunity to bond and learn about their child’s care from medical experts. They miss the opportunity to just hold their baby.

I am the mom of twins, one of whom spent time in the NICU. I can’t imagine not being able to hold my children after they were born.

And that’s what is stuck in my head and heart right now. I have seen countless “pro-life” billboards featuring an angelic picture of a (white) mom cradling her picture perfect baby. But what I see in my mind’s eye when I read Nayra’s story or hear my friend’s experience is an image of a Black or brown mom, arms empty, scared and weeping.

These moms cannot hold their babies because they are being terrorized by a regime run by a man who called himself “the most pro-life president in American history”.

So let’s talk about what it would look like to truly value the lives of moms and babies. It would look like access to medical care, yet here we have an administration working so hard to deny Medicaid coverage and increase insurance premiums. It would entail abundant nutrition, but disruptions and decreases in SNAP benefits have states and philanthropic entities scrambling to feed families. It would include meaningful reform on gun violence in a country where the biggest killer of pregnant and postpartum people is homicide, most often perpetrated with a firearm. The same country in which guns are the leading killer of children. But we know that federal action on gun violence will never happen under Trump’s watch. Valuing the lives of babies would require that all pregnant and postpartum people live in communities where they feel safe and have the resources they need to be healthy — so they can adequately care for their children. And we would value these things for all moms, not just white moms who by accident of birth are lucky enough to be U.S. citizens. ALL.

But that’s not what caring for babies looks like to an administration only focused on hate. There can be no public health with leaders who are only concerned with their own power. And there is certainly no safety with a regime so willing to hurt others in pursuit of their extremist agenda. I believe it is absolutely the case that extremism cannot exist without this extreme hypocrisy.

Therefore you have a supposedly “pro-life” president presiding over an apparatus that leaves an infant temporarily stranded in a hospital — her mother locked up merely for the crime of being brown and born in another country. And so many other mothers with medically fragile babies are now afraid to leave their homes, leaving them unable to be involved in their newborn’s care. All because they fear being disappeared.

So when this administration hollers that they care about babies we need to holler right back: whose babies do you actually care about? And will you care about them when they need food, housing, and to be safe from gun violence?

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I am grateful for the reporting in The 19th about this case and so many of the dynamics surrounding it. Their deep dives into issues like the impact of ICE detention on pregnant people and how Trump’s war on immigrants have made immigrant survivors of domestic violence considerably less safe have been essential in understanding the Trump-made humanitarian crisis in this country. As I work to amplify stories like Nayra Guzmán‘s, it’s important that I acknowledge (and support!) the media outlets that do not let us turn away, and on whose reporting I rely.

If you regularly read my essays you have heard me say this before — violence thrives in silence. I appreciate The 19th for constantly turning up the volume. I aspire to do the same and I hope you will join me.

We will not say silent in the face of such violence. And we should always push back on the hypocrisy of anyone who claims to care about babies but yet supports this evil regime.