NEW YORK (AP) — A lawsuit is claiming the New York Police Department forced a woman to give birth while shackled in handcuffs.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the woman she says she went into labor in February in a police holding cell in the Bronx. She says police took her to Montefiore Medical Center where they handcuffed her wrists to the bed and shackled her ankles.

The complaint says doctors warned the officers the constraints were illegal under state law. The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, says the experience humiliated and traumatized her.

The lawsuit seeks damages for violating a woman's civil rights and changes to police department policy.

A spokesman for the city's Law Department told The New York Times the agency was examining the allegations carefully.

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