In January, the California State Senate introduced legislation designed to prevent prison doctors from abusing inmate patients by restricting the use of sterilization procedures in state prisons and detention facilities.
Lawmakers were pressed into drafting Senate Bill 1135 after the discovery that 132 women had been given tubal ligation surgeries—in effect, having their tubes tied to prevent them from getting pregnant, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) reports.
Former inmates and prisoner advocates reported to CIR that medical staff had targeted women they deemed most likely to return to prison and coerced them into having the surgeries—a direct violation of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) policy.
SB 1135 would require prison officials to use all measures short of sterilization for the inmate patient. Exceptions would be allowed in cases of a medical emergency where the patient’s life is in imminent danger.
SB 1135 also requires that if a female inmate needs to be sterilized prison medical officials would have to first obtain an independent outside physician’s approval and then provide for counseling afterward. In addition, prison officials would be required to report the number of such surgeries, and include information such as race, age, why the sterilization was deemed necessary, and the surgical method used.
Since 1994, CDCR regulations have restricted sterilization surgeries, but SB 1135 would eliminate a loophole, which did not place limits on surgeries that would remove a woman’s uterus and ovaries.
State Sen. Hanna-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), sponsored the bill. Co-sponsors are state Sen. Loni Hancock, (D-Berkeley), Joel Anderson, (R-Alpine in San Diego County) and Assemblywoman Bonnie Loswenthal, (D-Long Beach).
Jackson is the vice-chairwoman of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.
“The women’s caucus has been vigilant in trying to uncover and fight against the traumatic abuse that incarcerated women have suffered by these sterilization procedures,” Sen. Jackson said in a CIR interview. “We want to make sure that the unconscionable act of forced sterilization never occurs again in California.”
This episode is not the first time California was found to be abusing women using sterilization, according to CIR. Between 1909 and 1964, about 20,000 women were sterilized, targeting mostly minorities, the poor, disabled, mentally ill and those who had criminal conviction.
Johnson, Joyce Hayhoe, spokesperson for the federal receiver in charge of the state prisons’ medical system, lauded the legislation. “The receiver’s office is supportive of the Bill being introduced by Sen. Jackson.”
The spokesperson for CDCR declined to make a statement in response to the CIR report.
