Abandoned to give birth on the floor of an Alabama jail shower unaided, a woman has reached a settlement in her lawsuit against the county that she says treated her as if she were “less than nothing.”

In October 2023, Ashley Caswell took legal action against Etowah County, including the sheriff’s office, its jail, and other officials, in federal court. This followed a two-year prior incident where she gave birth in the jail premises. While both she and her newborn survived, Caswell almost lost her life due to a placental abruption that led to severe hemorrhaging, according to her legal team.

“I felt they treated me like I was less than nothing, and I was terrified my baby and I would die. I decided I had to speak up by filing the lawsuit,” Caswell stated Monday in a press release. “Standing up for myself wasn’t easy, but reaching this settlement reassures me I made the right choice to sue. I hope they will ensure this doesn’t happen to another woman again.”

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Caswell accused the county of “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs” and negligence, among other claims. The terms of the settlement were not publicly released.

She was arrested in March 2021 under Alabama’s chemical endangerment law for using drugs when she was two months pregnant. Passed in 2006, the law was designed to punish parents who exposed children to drugs, particularly meth, at a time when it was running rampant across the state, according to the Bloomston Firm. However, according to a report by AL.com, the law has been disproportionally applied to pregnant mothers like Caswell.

The 62-page complaint alleged denial of prenatal health care and prescribed psychiatric medication. Plaintiff lawyers said jail officials refused to take her to a facility about 65 miles away that specialized in high-risk pregnancies like Caswell’s — which had previously been common practice — because the jail “did not have enough people to transport her there.” She was taken to the facility when she was previously pregnant at the jail in 2019, per the lawsuit.

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Officials also refused to take her to weekly prenatal appointments even after week 36 of her pregnancy, she said in the lawsuit.

“As a direct result of Defendants’ actions and inactions, Ms. Caswell’s constitutional rights were violated because she did not receive regular prenatal medical attention necessary for her high-risk pregnancy,” the lawsuit said.

Jail staff took her to a local hospital in September 2021 after she began having contractions. Doctors said she was experiencing “poor nutrition” and was “highly stressed” due to a lack of sleep as she spent the duration of her pregnancy sleeping on a mattress on the floor. She was forced to sleep on the mattress on the floor even after doctors recommended she be given a bottom bunk bed, per the complaint.