Rodney and Temecia Jackson speak at a news conference at The Afiya Center on 6 April. Photograph: TheAfiyaCenter/Twitter
By Edwin Rios, The Guardian, April 14, 2023
Last week at a press conference, Temecia Jackson recalled the moment when police officers and child protection services agents had “stolen” her baby from her Dallas home. Her words, and her story of how her newborn baby was taken from her because she opted to follow a midwife’s recommendation over a physician’s, sparked outrage across the country.
When University of Pennsylvania law professor and activist Dorothy Roberts first heard about the case, which captured national attention, she remembered that that was what happened to singer Syesha Mercado in Florida in 2021.
Less than two years ago, while the former American Idol finalist had been fighting for custody of her toddler, Mercado surrendered her breast-feeding newborn daughter to Manatee county sheriff’s deputies after a welfare check was performed on the side of a road.
Comments (0)