Pregnancy Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in Alabama on behalf of Tiffany McElroy and her infant daughter. Their rights were violated when a jail cruelly left Ms. McElroy to labor alone for more than 24 hours. Both were only saved by the quick-thinking, courageous detained women who assisted during the labor and delivery while jail staff watched from afar and threatened the women with punishment and violence for helping.
The federal lawsuit allows Ms. McElroy and Baby B.T. to sue for violations of their constitutional rights and names Houston County, the Houston County Commission, the Houston County sheriff, and more than a dozen jail staff as defendants. Among other claims, the suit asserts violations of Ms. McElroy’s and Baby B.T.’s 14th Amendment rights through deliberate indifference to their serious medical needs. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.