Female Prisoners

Female prisoners in the American prison system are also victims of forced sterilization. Although state lawmakers banned the practice of forced sterilization of the mentally ill and the poor in the late 1970s, the practice continued in California prisons until its official banning in 2015. While we do not know exactly how many female inmates have been sterilized over time, nearly 150 were sterilized between 2006 and 2010, and nearly one-third of these operations were done without informed consent. These women were either forced into receiving tubal ligations, or coerced by prison doctors or staff. Many of these doctors operated under the guise of doing what was best for the female inmate. That is, they deemed it a “medical emergency” and did not consult the women before taking matters into their own hands. Some doctors even falsified the paperwork, as to avoid taking responsibility for determining a woman’s reproductive fate. Just because these women are, or were, prisoners that does not mean they forfeit their rights to reproductive justice. These women were unjustly viewed as unfit mothers, regardless of their actual ability. They were shown no equality, and their fate was predetermined by an arbitrary set of rules meant to govern, but instead inflict harm.

HIV Positive Women and Sterilization

There have been incidents where women have been sterilized without consent because they are HIV positive. There are articles that examine the involuntary sterilization of HIV-positive women through the concept of inter-sectional discrimination. These women are being discriminated because not only are they are women, but they are HIV-positive, which is frowned upon. These women are getting involuntary sterilized because the information they are given is intentionally confusing, so that they do not understand the process of sterilization. Therefore, this leads them to receive the sterilization because they are confused and misinformed. Furthermore, women who have encountered these incidents have the perception of being singled out for getting “forced” sterilization. A women who is HIV positive should not be taken away her reproductive rights. There should be no type of discrimination against a women who has this virus. As a society there should be no one entitled to dictate whether or not a women should have a family because they are HIV positive. Women as a whole should have their own rights to decide if they want a family knowing they are HIV positive, however as a community we should have no choice in that but the victim.

 

Madrigal vs. Quilligan

In 1975, ten residents of a predominantly Latino neighborhood in the Los Angeles district sued the state and the U.S. government after they were sterilized while giving birth at the Los Angeles County General Hospital. The plaintiffs in this class action suit were working-class women of Mexican origin who had been coerced into post-partum tubal ligations hours, even minutes, after undergoing cesarean deliveries. Before these women could enter the delivery room they were forced to sign papers, written in English, consenting to the cutting of their Fallopian tubes. Sadly, most of these women were not aware that they were unable to bear more children until years later.

“No Mas Bebes” is a documentary by Renee Tajima-Pena that focuses on the Madrigal vs. Quilligan historic lawsuit regarding sterilization abuse.

 

How did something like this happen? According to Tajima-Pena, these government programs were implemented to provide contraception to women who would otherwise not be able to afford it. The government also put forth these programs with the goal of lowering birth rates of the poor. With all the money funding this mission, there was ample opportunity for abuse.

The Madrigal vs. Quilligan case exposes the links between state-sanctioned violence through the legal and medical fields to police, attempting to regulate and control women, their bodies, and their everyday choices. Although the women lost the case against the state, it was far from a loss. As a result of this case these women not only guaranteed some reproductive rights, they also began a movement to increase awareness of the issue of forced sterilization. For instance, consent forms in the hospital are now available in multiple languages, patients under the age of 21 have 72 hours to think about their choice, and their welfare benefits are not terminated. These rights do not go far enough in protecting women in hospitals, but they increase the overall well-being of women. Also, patients have the ability to make more informed decisions. Today there is more of a focus on cultural competency in health care. At the same time, however, the battle over reproductive freedom is as heated as it has ever been. With regards to immigrants, undocumented women don’t have access to reproductive health care in many places.

History of Sterilization

Sterilization is a medical procedure that leaves an individual incapable of sexual reproduction. Sterilization formed from the ideas of eugenics. Eugenics was thought to be a science in the 19^th century that introduced the idea that intelligence is an inherited trait. The US created policies that forced sterilizations on people that were considered ‘unfit’, which included the mentally ill, minorities, low-income, and low-educated women. After that, sterilization became the most popular form of birth control and was still used on women to promote a “superior race”. By denying women access to reproductive health care services, this interferes with their reproductive rights.

Reproductive Justice

Reproductive justice is the complete physical, mental, political, social, and economic well-being of women and girls, based on the full achievement and protection of women’s human rights. All individuals are part of a family and a community. Reproductive justice is access to resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality, and reproduce for ourselves. Our research that we have done is about reproductive justice for women and how that relates to forced sterilization on certain women. Reproductive justice is universal legal protections for all women, but what we have found is that many women are lacking legal protections for their rights regarding reproducing.

Introduction

We are a group of students from California State University, Dominguez Hills who are taking a Sociology course entitled Women in Society. This blog is for a group project on forced reproductive sterilization. We will discuss the history of reproductive sterilization, a specific legal case, women with HIV who were forcibly sterilized, and female prisoners who were forcibly sterilized.