California Prisons Sterilized 148 Female Inmates Without Approval [View all]

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According to a new article from the Center for Investigative Reporting, 148 female inmates in California were sterilized from 2006 to 2010 without the procedures going through required state vetting.

The sterilizations took place in two different prisons: the California Institution for Women and the Valley State Prison for Women, which is now a men's jail. Though doctors from the facilities say the procedures were performed out of medical necessity, former inmates say they were coerced into accepting sterilization with little to no explanation about why they needed it. Some believe medical personnel were simply targeting repeat offenders who they thought shouldn't have any more children. For instance, one former Valley State inmate who also worked in the infirmary, told the CIR that she "often overheard medical staff asking inmates who had served multiple prison terms to agree to be sterilized."

In interviews with the CIR, Dr. James Heinrich, the facility's OB-GYN, admitted to giving numerous women tubal ligations while skirting state directives related to the procedure. Since 1994, California has required tubal ligations behind bars to be approved by state medical officials in Sacramento on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, the state did not approve a single one of Heinrich's tubal ligations at Valley State.

Daun Martin, Valley State's medical manager from 2005 to 2008, told the CIR that she knew of the state's sterilization mandate but considered it unfair to women, so she and Heinrich came up with ways around it. "I'm sure that on a couple of occasions, (Heinrich) brought an issue to me saying, 'Mary Smith is having a medical emergency' kind of thing, 'and we ought to have a tubal ligation. She’s got six kids. Can we do it?'" Martin told the CIR. "And I said, 'Well, if you document it as a medical emergency, perhaps.'" Martin says she didn't authorize any tubular ligations during her time at Valley State, but records show that at least 60 of the procedures were performed under her purview.
More: http://gawker.com/california-prisons-sterilized-148-female-inmates-withou-709580195