The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit against the Indian Health Service for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request aiming to gather information on whether pregnant women on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation are being pressured to have labor induced against their will, the AP/Rapid City Journal reports. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Robert Doody, executive director of ACLU of South Dakota, said that women cannot obtain obstetric care on the reservation and must travel to a facility 90 miles away. Many women are told they must have their labor induced on a certain day, and they are not given information about the risks and benefits of induction, he said.

Doody said the suit was scheduled to coincide with U.S. Senate hearings on IHS on Sept. 28. According to the AP/Journal, critics say IHS has long lacked sufficient funding, which has caused high turnover among doctors and nurses, understaffed health facilities, inadequate specialty care and extended waits to see physicians (AP/Rapid City Journal, 9/27).

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