HomeNative HawaiianHawai'i state court temporarily removes restrictions on Native Hawaiian midwives

Hawai’i state court temporarily removes restrictions on Native Hawaiian midwives

The First Circuit Court of Hawaiʻi has temporarily blocked part of the Midwifery Restriction Law that prevents pregnant people from using traditional midwives, Maui Now reports.

“Today, we are once again able to stand in our own ancestral knowledge and serve our community with skills and traditions passed down through generations,” Makalani Franco-Francis, a plaintiff in the case, said in a press release from the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of six midwives and three mothers who want to use traditional midwives, Hawai’i Public Radio reports. The plaintiffs are suing the state of Hawai’i for putting legal restrictions on traditional midwifery.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander people have the highest pregnancy-related mortality ratio (PMR) among all women of all races at the national level.

“Today’s ruling recognizes that the Midwifery Restriction Law fails to provide the meaningful protections for traditional Native Hawaiian birthing practices that the Hawai‘i Constitution demands,” Hillary Schneller, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center, said in a press release. “As the court acknowledged, the state does real damage to Indigenous peoples’ health, safety, and culture when—instead of filling the many gaps that already exist in Hawai‘i’s maternal health care system—it takes away trusted midwives.”

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