More than 150 women in California prisons were sterilized between 2005 and 2010, according to Justice Now, an advocacy organization for women prisoners that’s accusing prison officials of using the procedure as a form of birth control.
The California Institution for Women in Corona and the Valley State Prison in Chowchilla were the facilitators of the sterilizations, which cost the system more than $147,000 in payments to doctors. Some inmates say they were harassed and coerced into complying with the procedures.
In 2012, Justice Now presented information to the state’s Budget and Financial Review Subcommittee.
“Through a public request act, Justice Now requested and received information that over 150 tubal ligations have been performed by CDCR medical partners during labor and delivery on people in women’s prisons since 2006, beginning one month after the recommendation to begin this practice was presented to the Gender Responsive Strategies Committee,” states the March 2012 budget testimony submitted by Justice Now.
The prison hospitals agreed in 2010 to adhere to new rules defining what “medically necessary” means. Since then, the prison system has performed just one forced sterilization.
Using federal funding to perform sterilizations for inmates is illegal. California used state funds but failed to seek the required medical approval necessary to perform such surgeries, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.
While women signed waivers agreeing to the sterilization procedures — including tubal ligations and ovary removal — many claim they were harassed and misled into doing so.
It is illegal for a physician — or anyone — to pressure a woman into a sterilization procedure. It also is illegal to request a woman agree to sterilization during labor.
But one woman interviewed by the Center of Investigative Reporting, Kimberly Jeffrey, claims that was the scenario she faced while she was being prepped for a cesarean section.
“He said, ‘So we’re going to be doing this tubal ligation, right?’” she told the Center for Investigative Reporting. “I’m like, ‘Tubal ligations? What are you talking about? I don’t want any procedure. I just want to have my baby.’ I went into a straight panic.”
Jeffrey claims this wasn’t the first time she had been asked to consider a tubal ligation. Her records show that she refused the procedure during a prenatal appointment in 2009, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. Jeffrey claims the reason for the tubal ligation request was never explained to her.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Kelli Thomas, a former inmate at the state’s Chowchilla prison, underwent surgery to have two cysts removed. She gave permission for the doctor to remove her ovaries only in the case that cancer was detected. During the procedure, cancer was not detected, but the doctor still removed her ovaries.
“I feel like I was tricked,” she told the Times. “I gave permission to do it based on a (cancer) diagnosis, and the diagnosis wasn’t there.”
Aside from not receiving permission from the California Medical Board, the prison performed such procedures outside legal bounds because they were not deemed “medically necessary.” Instead, physicians allegedly claimed that a woman who had a history of C-sections could be deemed as qualified for a “medically necessary” sterilization.