How exactly would U.S. officials go about determining whether someone entering the country is pregnant?
As Republicans eye new restrictions on pregnant travelers coming to the United States, a question hangs overhead:
How, exactly, would U.S. officials go about determining whether someone entering the country is pregnant or not?
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-07-01T14:07:19.391Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/restrictions-us-pregnant-travelers-supreme-court-birthright
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee said Tuesday he’s moving forward with plans for legislation that he’s calling the Anchors Away Act, which would ban certain pregnant foreign women from entering the United States.
“So, I have a bill; it will be called ‘Anchors Away,’ which, look, if you’re not a U.S. citizen, if you’re not a green card holder and you have a child on U.S. soil, today, that child will be a U.S. citizen,” Ogles said in a video posted to social media. “Under my bill, under my legislation, we fix that. … So in short, what this bill does is, if you are a pregnant woman, you can’t come into this country. You got to be a citizen, be here, you have to be a green card holder. So if you’re pregnant and you don’t have one of those statuses, no admittance allowed,” he continued.
As HuffPost noted, “
The ‘anchor’ part of Ogles’ bill refers to the pejorative term, ‘anchor babies,’ used by many conservatives to describe children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants.”....
As the day progressed, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller also appeared on Fox News, and when asked whether the
U.S. is prepared to start “banning pregnant women,” Miller didn’t say no, replying instead that there are “a lot of things” the Trump administration will take “a hard look” at.
Stephen Miller says the Trump administration will take “a hard look†at banning foreign pregnant women from the country
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-07-01T00:26:43.277Z
On Wednesday morning,
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also said the administration is prepared to “look at” restrictions on pregnant travelers to the U.S.
I won’t pretend to know what, if anything, will come of this, but I do have a question for proponents of these restrictions: How exactly would U.S. officials go about determining whether someone entering the country is pregnant?
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