Curiosity
Female Inmates Sterilized Because it Was “Cost Efficient”
Female Inmates Sterilized Because it Was “Cost Efficient”
According to a recent report released by the Center for Investigative Reporting, a minimum of 150 female inmates in California prisons underwent permanent sterilization while incarcerated.
According to the report, between the years of 2006 and 2010, women who were pregnant and considered at high risk of become repeat offenders or had already been in the prison multiple times, were placed under pressure by prison doctors to sign release forms allowing the sterilization to take place. The sterilization procedures, known in medical terms as tubal ligations, were performed without receiving any kind of prior state approval or consent.
One doctor, Dr. James Heinrich, who used to work at Valley State, defended the procedure as cost efficient:
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.”
Nurses from the prison have testified to overhearing conversations between several of the doctors and patients. Women would be asked to sign forms allowing the sterilization to take place. Certain inmates have also testified about being repeatedly pressured to allow the tubal ligation to be procedure to be performed.
Many of the women are now stating that they felt coerced into the decision and regret having had agreed to the procedure.
Crystal Nguyen, a former Valley State Prison inmate who worked in the prison’s infirmary during 2007, said she often overheard medical staff asking inmates who had served multiple prison terms to agree to be sterilized.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s not right,’ ” said Nguyen, 28. “Do they think they’re animals, and they don’t want them to breed anymore?”
One former Valley State inmate who gave birth to a son in October 2006 said the institution’s OB-GYN, Dr. James Heinrich, repeatedly pressured her to agree to a tubal ligation.
“As soon as he found out that I had five kids, he suggested that I look into getting it done. The closer I got to my due date, the more he talked about it,” said Christina Cordero, 34, who spent two years in prison for auto theft. “He made me feel like a bad mother if I didn’t do it.”
Christina Cordero, 34, who gave birth in Valley State prison in 2006, tells the Daily Mail she felt like she was coerced by Dr Heinrich into having the sterilization surgery after giving birth to her child.
‘As soon as he found out that I had five kids, he suggested that I look into getting it done. The closer I got to my due date, the more he talked about it,’ Christina Cordero, who served a two year prison sentence for auto theft, said.
‘He made me feel like a bad mother if I didn’t do it.’
She added: ‘Today, I wish I would have never had it done.’
Kimberly Jeffrey, 43, says she was strapped to a hospital table and under the influence of medication – preparing to have a C-section in 2010, when the doctor all but demanded she agree to sterilization surgery.
‘He said, “So we’re going to be doing this tubal ligation, right?”
‘I’m like, “Tubal ligation? What are you talking about? I don’t want any procedure. I just want to have my baby.” I went into a straight panic.’
The report is still in the process of being further investigated. There is currently evidence that suggests that this practice of inmate sterilization extends beyond the approximate 150 known cases.
The act of forcing sterilization upon inmates is a practice that dates back decades. Its horrors became widely prevalent during the Holocaust in the concentration camps. Doctors involved in the California cases claim that they were unaware of any state approval required and deny pressuring any females into receiving a procedure that they did not want.
What are your thoughts on the female inmates sterilized story?
Pressure: Kimberly Jeffrey said she was pressured multiple times, including while strapped to an operating table, to have sterilization surgery after giving birth to her son Noel, now 3
On The Web:
California Prisons Were Illegally Sterilizing Female Inmates
http://news.yahoo.com/california-prisons-were-illegally-sterilizing-female-inmates-034434788.html
Female Inmates Sterilized In California
http://www.webpronews.com/female-inmates-sterilized-in-california-2013-07
Female inmates sterilized in California prisons without approval
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/07/5549696/female-inmates-sterilized-in-california.html
Mother tells how she was strapped down while prison doctors persuaded her to be sterilized as it emerges nearly 250 California inmates were ‘pressured’ into the surgery
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2358065/Nearly-250-women-California-prisons-pressured-sterilization-surgeries-took-place-2010.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
