(Editorial note: To the Pro-Life Republicans in this (still) red state. If you really value the unborn and support young mothers, then why do you let incarcerated women be hungry, and neglect their medical needs? These are three women telling the same story.)

“I’m hungry all the time, but especially on the weekends when we only get two meals…breakfast at 7 am and dinner at 6 pm. Dinner takes even longer to get a meal because diets eat last, so I have to wait till after 7 pm. Pregnant people are supposed to get 3 extra milks, one peanut butter sandwich, and a small egg or chicken salad per day, IN ADDITION to a regular meal. It never works out that way. The white shirts and kitchen officers are mean to us. Sometimes we don’t get the egg salad, and if we complain they say, ” I’ll give it to you this time but if you bother me again I’ll write you up.” Or for breakfast, we don’t get our extra milk and they say, “You got one, go away.” Consistently, one or more of our ‘extra’ food is missing.

If we have to go to a mandatory program and miss more than 5 meals in a week, they cut us out of our pregnancy food entirely! If it wasn’t for the kindness of strangers…my fellow inmates, we’d starve. As it is, my belly feels empty all the time.

I’ve never been to prison before and had no idea the meals were so skimpy. For a typical breakfast tray during the week, all I get is 5 potato pieces, a handful of cereal, and milk. What comes out of that kitchen is disgusting.”

(Ed. None of these 3 ladies has received an ultrasound, prenatal vitamins, or seen the OB/Gyn, and they’ve been here approximately two months. One of the girls is especially worried because she has a heart condition that makes her a high-risk pregnancy, and another is stressed about being given a drug called Suboxone, which might lead to serious birth defects.)

(She wrote us this letter and begged to have her real name in the story. Ed.)

“My name is Robin Leigh Kulp. I am housed at Perryville prison, San Carlos unit. On 3-25-24 I was having trouble breathing, and having serious chest pain. My legs were throbbing, aching, and burning. An ICS was called as I was unresponsive to medical staff. Nurse Arnott administered Narcan to me, and then Nurse Jones gave me another dose of Narcan. These nurses were aware I had been given morphine earlier.

I was admitted to Abrazo West Hospital and sent to ICU because my oxygen level was only 33%. There I was put on a Narcan drip because Carlos medical staff had failed to provide the hospital with my records. Narcan and morphine can be a deadly combination. Dr. Jordyne at the hospital immediately stopped the Narcan drip when he found out I was on morphine.

The doctor released me three days later and changed my medication to Percocet and gabapentin instead of morphine. The providers here are not specialists in cancer treatment, nor apparently, pain management. Carlos providers are not giving me ANY pain medication, or ANY of the medication prescribed by real off-site doctors.

I live in constant pain from nerve damage in my legs, my feet are turning purple, my chest hurts, and I can’t sleep. Will they just let me die like this?”