Lawsuit claims Vermont monitored pregnant women deemed unfit to be mothers

A lawsuit was recently filed against the Vermont Department for Children and Families, a counseling center, and a hospital in Vermont. According to the lawsuit, these entities used unfounded claims about a pregnant woman’s mental health to secretly investigate her. The lawsuit states that the agencies did this to gain custody of the woman’s daughter before the baby was born. The legal action was initiated by the ACLU of Vermont and Pregnancy Justice, a national advocacy group, on behalf of the woman identified as A.V.

The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Vermont and Pregnancy Justice, seeks unspecified monetary damages for the woman referred to by her initials, A.V. Additionally, the legal action aims to put an end to what is described as an unlawful surveillance program. The woman in question gave birth in February 2022 at the hospital named in the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, the state also faces accusations that it routinely tracks pregnant women deemed unsuitable to be mothers.

The legal complaint asserts that the Vermont Department for Children and Families, along with the counseling center and the hospital, violated the woman’s rights by falsely accusing her of having mental health issues. These accusations were allegedly used as a basis to investigate her without her knowledge and secure custody of her daughter before the birth of her child. The lawsuit claims that this conduct constitutes an illegal surveillance program that infringes on the woman’s privacy and civil liberties.

This photograph shows the logo of the American Civil Liberties Union. (KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images)

“What DCF did here is incredibly cruel,” Ijaz said. “It’s discriminatory. Its state sanctioned surveillance and stalking, and it violates Vermont’s newly enshrined right to reproductive autonomy in its state constitution. This is an opportunity for Vermont to signal to other states, as a leader, and say that these rights don’t just exist on paper. They exist in practice, too.”

Stark said the allegations in Vermont are particularly troubling since the state has described itself as a haven for reproductive rights.

“To discover evidence that a state agency is essentially colluding with certain medical providers to collect information without folks’ knowledge or consent and expanding its jurisdiction unlawfully to investigate folks based on what are essentially decisions about their own reproductive health is incredibly alarming,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.