Temecia Jackson and her husband Rodney, a Black couple living in Texas, chose to have a home birth with a licensed midwife. After what should have been a routine visit to the pediatrician, their newborn was wrongfully taken away from her parents. It's been two weeks and Mila Jackson still hasn't returned home!
Sign the petition to demand Dallas CPS apologize and return Mila Jackson to her parents!
The horror began at Mila's first pediatrician check up. While Mila was initially given a clean bill of health, the doctor later contacted them to say she needed medical attention for jaundice. The condition is fairly normal in newborns, so the Jacksons chose to treat Mila at home with the help of their midwife. Then, the doctor reported them to CPS.
As if the situation wasn't horrifying enough, the affidavit justifying the removal of poor Mila from her home listed a completely different mother – a woman with a history of neglect. Since Mila was born at home, she hasn't received an official birth certificate, leaving her parents distraught and feeling like she was stolen from them.
The Afiya Center, a reproductive and birth justice organization in Texas called the situation a "direct attack on Black mothers and parents, Black families and midwifery."
In the United States, Black mothers are four to five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white mothers. What Dallas CPS has done is inexcusable and has caused irreversible damage.
Sign the petition to demand Dallas CPS apologize and return Mila Jackson to her parents!
