Pregnant Sioux Women Have "Hell Ride" to Birth

by Roxann MtJoy · 2011-01-27 13:30:00 UTC
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Imagine you are pregnant. You are now at full-term and it is time to give birth. The closest health care center with obstetrical services is well over an hour away and transportation is scarce. That might sound horrible, but such is the harsh reality for women of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

For approximately ten years, these women have made this so-called "hell ride." The lucky ones make the journey strapped to a gurney in the back of an ambulance; the others have to find private transportation, no easy task on the reservation, where the cars are limited and the poverty severe. A higher than average number women choose — or are coerced by doctors — to induce labor, in an attempt to avoid the hell ride altogether.

So what led to this hellish situation? It seems that the reservation and its 14,200 residents have been without obstetrical facilities since 2001, thus necessitating the over 90-mile trek to St. Mary's Healthcare Center in Pierre, South Dakota, whenever a woman needs to give birth. The overall situation on the reservation is so bad that Fordham law school professor Chi Mgbako compared it to that of women in developing nations.

Supposedly, a hospital and birthing center have been in the works for the reservation for a decade. However, when the ACLU asked the Indian Health Service (IHS) to reveal the plans for the project, they refused. Last fall, the ACLU sued under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Since then, only a few documents have been released to them.

The situation for the women of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is unacceptable. They deserve access to comprehensive reproductive health care. Ask the IHS to turn over all documentation relating to the proposed hospital immediately. One hell ride more is one too many.

Photo credit: Neeta Lind

Roxann MtJoy is a freelance writer who previously worked as a case manager at a domestic violence shelter. She is currently attending graduate school for theater in Mount Vernon, N.Y.

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