MadameNoire
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A Florida woman is speaking out against the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office after her newborn baby died after she gave birth while in the county jail.
On August 9, Erica Thompson was arrested for felony violation of probation and failure to appear on a traffic charge. While in custody, Thompson began having contractions. She said no one paid attention to her when she tried to get help.
“I’m steady like, I’m going to have my baby. I’m screaming,” she told CBS4. “I’m going to have my baby, please get me out of here. I feel like I’m going to have my baby. When I said that, I felt like all bets where off, everybody needs to be coming in here trying to check on me and see what’s going on. I’ve had kids before, so I know exactly how it feels. I’m about to have my baby, I’m not just talking.”
Thompson ended up giving birth while being only six months pregnant. When she was being taken to a nearby hospital, her child was still alive, but doctors later told her they couldn’t save the baby because they were too small.
“They didn’t even put her in an incubator,” Thompson said. “They just had her in the crib. So they wrapped her up, and they told me, she’s too small. We don’t think we can save her, we’re not going to be able to do anything.”
Kaley Behl of the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office said that the incident is being investigated.
“Our entire agency is very saddened by what Ms. Thompson had to experience,” she said. “We absolutely realize how traumatizing and heartbreaking it is to lose a child, and we are deeply saddened, and we grieve with her in the loss of her child. We are confident that the investigation will be completed in it’s entirety, and it will be given a full review, and if there are any concerns they will be addressed.”
Ever since Thompson’s experience went viral, activists have been stepping up on her behalf.
“Why would you arrest a pregnant woman on a nonviolent warrant?,” Executive Director of FedFam4Life Tray Johns told CBS. “First off, they need to apologize to Erica Thompson, for that statement, for the treatment she received, for the treatment her child received, or non-treatment, they need to apologize first.”
