Bill protects pregnant people in prison from restraints.
H.R. 9817 — Justice for Incarcerated Moms Act · Filed by Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) · 43 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 21, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill stops prisons from using physical restraints on pregnant people. It sets up new health care programs for pregnant and postpartum people in prison. States that do not have restraint rules lose 25% of their federal crime money. The bill funds programs in at least 6 federal prisons. It also funds state and local jail programs. The government must study deaths of pregnant and postpartum people in prison.
Who it affects
Pregnant people in prison gain protection from restraints and better health care. States and local jails get money to run new programs.
One thing to notice
States can choose not to restrict restraints. But they lose 25% of federal crime money if they do not. The bill counts deaths from suicide and overdose as pregnancy-related if tied to pregnancy.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
43 cosponsors: 43 Democrats.
- Jul 21, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 21, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $1,150,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 9 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Ayanna Pressley, who sponsored the bill, received $90,254 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Abbott Laboratories — $1,150,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- physical restraints — chains, handcuffs, or other devices that limit a person's movement
- federal crime money — money the government gives to states and cities for crime-fighting programs
- postpartum — the time after a person gives birth
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (23,210 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-23.
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