Protesters demand return of Black couple’s baby taken by Texas authorities after home birth

By Char Adams, NBC News

Reproductive justice advocates are rallying behind a Dallas-area couple after authorities took their 3-week-old daughter over concerns about her medical needs. 

More than two dozen organizers with The Afiya Center, a Black-centered reproductive justice group, advocates and others gathered outside the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, or DFPS, in Dallas on Thursday demanding it return the newborn, Mila, to her parents, Rodney, 37, and Temecia Jackson, 38. Mila, born March 21, was taken into state custody last month after a pediatrician told authorities that the parents opted to treat her for jaundice at home rather than admit her to a hospital. 

“The doctor gave them options for care that the family agreed to follow,” Qiana Arnold, a doula and birth justice advocate with the Afiya Center, told NBC News. “They even agreed to connect the doctor with their midwife, but they were clear that they were keeping their baby under the midwife’s care. It felt like retaliation from the doctor.” 

She said the Jacksons’ licensed midwife, Cheryl Edinbyrd, is associated with the center and immediately contacted the organization when Mila was taken by the authorities.

Baylor Scott & White Health, which employs the pediatrician, Dr. Anand Bhatt, declined to comment on any specifics of the case but said in a statement that the health care system abides by “reporting requirements set forth in the Texas Family Code and any other applicable laws.” However, Bhatt previously told court officials that he “authorized the support of CPS to help get this baby get the care that was medically necessary and needed,” according to KABC. 

The full article on NBC has more details.

From enslavement to child removal, the Black community has long been subject to the white ideal of how they should live.

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