The
Center for Investigative Reporting reports its findings that doctors under
contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation illegally
sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state
approvals. At least 148 women received tubal ligations in violation of prison
rules during those five years – and there are perhaps 100 more dating back to
the late 1990s, according to state documents and interviews.
From
1997 to 2010, the state paid doctors $147,460 to perform the procedure,
according to a database of contracted medical services for state prisoners.
The
women were signed up for the surgery while they were pregnant and housed at
either the California Institution for Women in Corona or Valley State Prison
for Women in Chowchilla, which is now a men’s prison. Former inmates and
prisoner advocates maintain that prison medical staff coerced the women,
targeting those deemed likely to return to prison in the future.
During
an interview with CIR, Heinrich said he provided an important service to poor
women who faced health risks in future pregnancies because of past cesarean
sections. The 69-year-old Bay Area physician denied pressuring anyone and
expressed surprise that local contract doctors had charged for the surgeries.
He described the $147,460 total as minimal.
“Over
a 10-year period, that isn’t a huge amount of money,” Heinrich said, “compared
to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children – as they
procreated more.”
The
allegations echo those made nearly a half-century ago, when forced
sterilizations of prisoners, the mentally ill and the poor were commonplace in
California. State lawmakers officially banned such practices in 1979. Federal
and state laws ban inmate sterilizations if federal funds are used, reflecting
concerns that prisoners might feel pressured to comply. California used state
funds instead, but since 1994, the procedure has required approval from top
medical officials in Sacramento on a case-by-case basis.
Yet
no tubal ligation requests have come before the health care committee
responsible for approving such restricted surgeries, said Dr. Ricki Barnett,
who tracks medical services and costs for the California Prison Health Care
Receivership Corp.
Lawsuits,
a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and public outrage over eugenics and similar
sterilization abuses in Alabama and New York spawned new requirements in the
1970s for doctors to fully inform patients. Since then, it’s been illegal to
pressure anyone to be sterilized or ask for consent during labor or childbirth.
The
top medical manager at Valley State Prison from 2005 to 2008 characterized the
surgeries as an empowerment issue for female inmates, providing them the same
options as women on the outside. Daun Martin, a licensed psychologist, also
claimed that some pregnant women, particularly those on drugs or who were
homeless, would commit crimes so they could return to prison for better health
care.
“Do
I criticize those women for manipulating the system because they’re pregnant?
Absolutely not,” Martin, 73, said. “But I don’t think it should happen. And I’d
like to find ways to decrease that.”
Martin
denied approving the surgeries, but at least 60 tubal ligations were done at
Valley State while Martin was in charge, according to the state contracts
database.
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