Transforming Reproductive Services for formerly Incarcerated women

Transformative Perspective:

In a transformative approach, we aim to create a program that addresses the disparities women face in the prison system regarding reproductive care, and working to heal the harm and trauma caused by these issues.

Facts:

According to Ziazadeh, 2019, Doctors in federal prisons often lack proper training, especially in Obstetrics and gynecology, which prevents women from receiving treatment for preventable diseases like ovarian cancer.

Approximately 6 to 10% of incarcerated women are pregnant and do not receive the proper care needed for a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery ( Ziazadeh, 2019)

About 4% of incarcerated women are pregnant when entering prison and more than two-thirds (68%) of these women had no health insurance at the time. Only have had received any kind of prenatal care in prison apart from an obstetric exam

Real Life Example:

After viewing the documentary Belly of the Beast, we realized how much manipulation occurs within women’s healthcare in prisons. These doctors lied to and belittled young female inmates, preventing them from having children. The story of Kelli Dillon brought attention to incarcerated mothers and how their situation will continuously affect them. Kelli, along with 148 inmates, were sterilized illegally, disproportionately affecting Black and Latino women, which is a targeted and systemic issue. Even though sterilization was illegal in California, “California used state funds to pay doctors a total of almost $150,000 to sterilize women” (Reed, 2020). This process only increases severe and extensive trauma for women struggling in prison, as they are treated as if they are not human already.

Goal:

We propose to develop a women's healthcare and reproductive rights advocacy program. In this program we plan to have healthcare professionals, social workers, or any member of the community to volunteer as advocates for post- incarcerated women. We want to bring attention to the greater disparities incarcerated women, especially black women face when regarding reproductive care. Although, it would be ideal for these volunteers to help women already incarcerated, the likelihood of corrections allowing healthcare in any form is basically non-existent. Consequently, our program would accept women who have been or recently have been imprisoned and have not received reproductive care properly. Further, this program will be open to individuals who struggled in prison and want to seek support. While organizations like Planned Parenthood often fail to address these issues, our approach focuses on the root causes of these disparities. We propose to educate the community and diminish myths revolving around prison healthcare to transform our society's structures.

Advocacy Poster:

The awareness poster on the left illustrates our program designed to serve those who need assistance but are unable to access it through the government or healthcare.

Mutual Aid Program

To acknowledge, this program would be a mutual aid program, not a charity. Mutual aid emphasizes the program's purpose of not trying to fix the prison system but to help victims that struggled from reproductive care as a result of that system. Every woman deserves something that the need. This way, it is basically a form of free healthcare, working towards building solidarity with one another and challenging the idea of striving to fix the structures and systems already in place. This mutual aid program will carry out the concept of transforming us from being "passive observers to inspired builders" (Spake, 2021).

Looking Forward...

We propose this to help abolish the prison system and show the harm it causes instead of any benefits. Our goal is to create a world where all women, no matter their race, class, or identity, can freely exercise their reproductive rights. As Audre Lourde wrote, “...present each other with our hurts and needs, and strategize as a community to get those needs and desires met. We must remember, share, and practice strategies for grounding, support, resilience, transformation, and accountability” (Breaking Isolation, 2015).

Works Cited

Breaking Isolation: Self Care and Community Care Tools for our People. (2015, March

31). The Audre Lorde Project. https://alp.org/breaking-isolation-self-care-and-

community-care-tools-our-people

Sawyer, A. K. and W. (n.d.). Women’s mass incarceration: The whole pie 2024. Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2024 | Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024women.html

Spade, D. (2021). What is Mutual Aid? (Classroom Version). In YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYPgTZeF5Z0.

Ziazadeh, D. (2019, May 31). Inadequate health care: A significant problem affecting incarcerated women: The pursuit: University of Michigan School of Public Health Advocacy: Child Health: Health Care Access: Health Disparities: Maternal Health: Pregnancy: Reproductive health: Health for women. The Pursuit | University of Michigan

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