The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls has urged every federal parliamentarian to support Senator Lidia Thorpe's Crimes Amendment (Prohibiting Shackling During Childbirth) Bill 2026.

The Bill, introduced to parliament last month and currently before the Senate, would prohibit the use of physical, mechanical, chemical and environmental restraints during labour, childbirth, immediately before labour and immediately after birth.

National Network spokesperson Debbie Kilroy said shackling a person during childbirth "is not safety".

"It is state violence inflicted at the moment a person is most physically vulnerable and in need of care," she said.

"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women will be disproportionately exposed to this violence because they are disproportionately targeted, criminalised and imprisoned.

"The practice sits within a much longer colonial history of controlling First Nations women, separating families and denying Aboriginal mothers' authority over their own bodies and children."

The Network noted in a statement on Wednesday the case of Yannetty, who was six months pregnant when handcuffed and shackled at the ankles for transport from Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre to a pregnancy-related hospital appointment just over a decade ago.

"Her feet and ankles were already swollen. With her movement restricted, she almost tripped while climbing into the small steel compartment of the transport vehicle. She was then driven through temperatures above 40 degrees in a vehicle with no functioning air conditioning," the Network said.

'I was frightened of fainting. I was frightened for my baby'

Yannetty described her experience as being "hot, swollen, restrained and trapped inside that steel compartment".

"I felt myself becoming faint," she said.

"I was frightened of falling. I was frightened of fainting. I was frightened for my baby."

Yannetty said the treatment made her feel as though neither her pregnancy nor her humanity mattered.

"I was not treated like a pregnant woman going to receive medical care. I felt like I was being treated as though I was something dangerous that needed to be bound," she said.

Yannetty said the fear created by imprisonment left her feeling unable to object, even as the restraints caused pain and she struggled to breathe.

"No pregnant woman should have to believe that suffering in silence is the safest option available to her," she said.

"A woman does not stop being a mother because she is in custody. An unborn baby is not incarcerated."

'Punitive culture permits pregnant people to be restrained as a matter of routine'

The National Network said Yannetty's experience "exposes the punitive culture that permits pregnant people to be restrained as a matter of routine", adding that Senator Thorpe's Bill is an "essential minimum protection", while noting "broader transformation" is also needed to end the shackling of pregnant people during medical care and transport.

"Yannetty's words should make every parliamentarian deeply uncomfortable," Ms Kilroy said.

"She was carrying a baby, struggling to breathe in extreme heat, with metal cutting into her swollen ankles, and the state still treated her as a security problem rather than a human being. This is what prisons do: they make cruelty appear ordinary and call it procedure."

Ms Kilroy said a "policy, discretion or supposed exemption" is not enough.

"As long as officers retain the power to decide whether a person in labour deserves to be unshackled, someone will be forced to give birth in chains. The prohibition must be absolute, enforceable and backed by accountability," she said.

Ms Kilroy said shackling during childbirth cannot be separated from the broader state control of criminalised women's bodies and reproductive lives.

"A prison sentence is not a sentence to medical danger, humiliation or obstetric violence," she said.

"There is no credible safety justification for restraining a person who is labouring or giving birth. Shackling restricts movement, interferes with healthcare and can delay an emergency response. It punishes the person giving birth and places their baby at risk."

The bill will proceed to committee inquiry, where senators will hear expert evidence.

'We need a clear prohibition in law'

Senator Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent senator representing Victoria, described shackling of women during childbirth as "incredibly degrading and dangerous".

"There is no evidence that shackling someone during childbirth prevents escape or reduces risk. There are no reports of an unrestrained person attempting to escape during childbirth, because people giving birth are not trying to run away," she said.

"What shackling does is put the health and safety of the parent and baby at risk. People in labour need to be able to move and change position. Restraints can interfere with medical care and delay emergency procedures. If an emergency caesarean is required, even a short delay can have devastating consequences for a baby.

"State and territory policies have not been enough to end this practice. Policies with exemptions are not enough. We need a clear prohibition in law."

Senator Thorpe noted that while the federal government would likely argue justice systems and police practices are matters for state and territory governments, the Commonwealth does have the power to legislate national minimum standards and to give effect in law to the human rights agreements Australia has ratified.

The National Network called on the Federal Government and Opposition to publicly support the Bill "and ensure its urgent passage".