birth and abortion: limited access to reproductive healthcare inside prisons and jails
there are clear barriers for women behind bars to be autonomous when it comes to their reproductive health, according to a study from the Prison Policy Initiative
We go to the Prison Policy Initiative for this week's study, “Recent studies shed light on what reproductive “choice” looks like in prisons and jails.”
Based on 22 state prisons:
86% allowed abortion
Just three of the study’s 22 state prison systems banned abortion entirely
Out of the 19, eight allowed it during the first trimester only
32% did not have an official written policy regarding abortion
59% require the incarcerated woman to pay for her abortion
More than one-fourth of the 22 prisons offered no contraception access at all
Pregnancy testing was not part of official policy in 36% of the study’s prison systems and in one of the study’s six jails
23% allowed both permanent and reversible contraception
23% only allowed reversible contraception
6 or 27% only allowed permanent contraception
The remaining 6 states (27%) did not offer contraception at all
Over the one-year course of the study, 33 abortions were reported in jails and 11 in the prisons
This is out of 1,040 total pregnancies that ended in custody during that period
This confirms that abortions are not common behind bars
In states hostile to abortion, only 77% prison systems allowed abortion for incarcerated people, compared to 100% of prison systems in nonhostile states
Second trimester abortions were allowed for incarcerated people in 38% of hostile states and 67% of nonhostile states
Read the whole study here.
COVID-19 resources: State policy changes. News. Bureau of Prisons updates. State court changes. Prison holistic self care and protection. Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook.
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