14 DAY TRIAL // A new report by the Center of Investigative Reporting has found that as many as 150 tubal ligations were performed in California prisons between 2006 and 2010, all of them without state approval.
The same report notes that as many as 250 female inmates may have been sterilized since the 1990s under the same conditions.
Many of them have told the CIR that they were coerced into or misinformed about the procedure, which would explain why doctors never filed the papers with state authorities for any of the cases.
Many of the women say they would not have had the procedure done, had they known what it entailed.
“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,” the CIR reports.
“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,” adds the CIR.