The California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ) is a statewide organization that advocates for healthcare access, reproductive rights, and bodily autonomy for Latina/e women, young girls, and the whole community. CLRJ’s work doesn’t end with reproductive justice; it also supports communities through rent stabilization, political education, and community organizing.
Xochitl Morales, Development and RJ Movement Building Manager with CLR, explained that the Reproductive Justice framework focuses on intersectionality.
“The term coined by Kimberly Crenshaw that outlines how various forms of oppression overlap in our lives depending on our identities, and CLRJ navigates their work using this framework. Reproductive Justice is rooted in this framework,” said Morales.
At CLRJ, they have launched Vidas Sin Fronteras: Immigration Justice is Reproductive Justice, an initiative that aims to challenge and dismantle a system that attacks and separates immigrant families. Morales explained that Vidas Sin Fronteras is an educational campaign on the intersections between immigrant and reproductive justice. CLRJ has been focused on uplifting the stories of family separation.
“At this moment we’ve been focusing on the issue of family separation as a violation of reproductive justice, and this completely also applies to folks that are being held in detention,” said Morales. “We recently did a power hour, a virtual advocacy that grounded our community in political education about why immigrant justice is reproductive justice. A lot of people just think that reproductive justice is just like abortion and access to reproductive healthcare services, but really it expands so much beyond that-into having safe and healthy families, safe and healthy communities to raise our families.”
When President Trump first retook office in early 2025, and immigration sweeps across the country began, many pregnant women were and continue to be detained without access tohealthcare, postpartum care, mental health services, and more.
From Jan 2025 through Feb 16, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained 363 pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women. Despite reporting that pregnant people who are detained receive adequate care such as prenatal care, postpartum care, lactation, and counseling, a report challenges these claims by ICE.
“Right now, our efforts at the intersection are really looking like community education also because the experiences of reproducing and birthing bodies in detention are usually kinda swept under the rug because they are not supposed to be in detention and they are not supposed to be detained,” said Morales.
According to the National Health Law, it reported that “While in detention, pregnant people have experienced miscarriages, serious life-threatening pregnancy complications, malnutrition, illness, and overall medical distress.”
Morales added that during the virtual advocacy workshop, they touched on how breastfeeding mothers are being separated from their babies and how mothers who are detained are being denied reproductive healthcare professionals. They also mentioned that through coalitionpartners, they have been made aware of the detainment of pregnant people.
They shared the story from the Women’s Refugee Commission regarding a breastfeeding Honduran mother who had to plead more than six times to receive adequate care as she was noticing complications such as bleeding during her pregnancy.
Under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pregnant, postpartum, and nursing individuals are to be detained only if exceptional circumstances are present. However, if detained, ICE must monitor these individuals for their general well-being and overall health and provide facilities suitable for their medical and mental health needs.
Yet, from January 2025 through September 2025, 16 miscarriages were reported by ICE, and according to research by the Mayo Clinic, chronic stress or acute stress can harm the body.
Morales pointed out another trend and issue they have noticed is the lack of reproductive justice made available to pregnant youth and young mothers. They also emphasized the lack of data that is made available regarding how many pregnant individuals are detained daily.
“These pregnant young people are being detained and sent to Texas, where they do not have access to an abortion and often times are victims of rape, so these are some of the experiences we are uplifting,” said Morales. “Our policy platform next year will be including a lot more on the intersection of immigrant justice, and right now we are community organizing and community education work is really where we are working at this intersection.”
Currently, the only tracker that accounts for pregnant people in detention centers is by the Women’s Refugee Commission. Through this tracker, anyone can make a report on the conditions these women are facing while in detention.