Broad support for N.C. bill to bar shackling pregnant inmates By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH (AP) — A bipartisan legislative effort to improve the care of pregnant women in North Carolina’s prisons and jails will protect the mothers and newborns without diminishing public safety, supporters said Tuesday. Among other protections, the bill would prohibit physical restraints on incarcerated women before, during and after they deliver their babies. Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike are backing the measure, and a wide array of groups across the ideological spectrum — from Planned Parenthood to the American Conservative Union — are on board.