The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has shocked people across the nation. This decision has left devastating impacts on many, including one group often left out of the discussion: incarcerated individuals in women’s prisons.
Policing and regulating women’s bodies has long been a form of control and punishment used to strip women of their agency and autonomy, remind them that they have no rights over their own bodies and silence their voices. For many women and gender non-conforming people across the United States, the rollback of Roe v. Wade is one of the first times they have been confronted with the reality of their government returning to these kinds of draconian laws.
Sexual and medical violence in prison are not isolated occurrences, but rather reflect a system of oppression.
Yet, for people incarcerated in women’s prisons, who are predominantly Black and other women of color, this reality never went away in the first place. That’s precisely why this moment, when so many Americans are focusing their attention on both reproductive rights and the criminalization of individuals’ bodies, presents an opportunity to bring attention to a U.S. prison system that produces, facilitates and rationalizes harm.
The United States has a long history of viewing incarcerated people as not deserving of the same rights as those on the outside. As a result, incarcerated people are often abused, policed and controlled with little oversight or accountability for those that perpetuate such inhumane treatment.
Sexual and medical violence in prison are not isolated occurrences, but rather reflect a system of oppression where prison staff have unfettered power over imprisoned people. Both physical abuse from correctional staff and forced or coercive medical care are crimes that are hidden from outside view by code, power dynamics and institutional policy. In one case, from 2006 to 2010, sterilizations were performed on hundreds—potentially even thousands—of people serving time at the Central California Women’s Facility, California Institution for Women and the former Valley State Prison for Women without proper informed consent.
To make matters worse, reporting and speaking out about sexual and medical violence are too often met with retaliation. Prison staff wield excessive power and control over people housed in women’s prisons, who lack the ability to deter unwanted sexual advances, unethical and unwanted medical procedures, or any experience that is harmful or does not feel right to them.
Still, prison populations find ways to survive and resist. In 2021, incarcerated survivors of forced sterilizations and several organizations, including Back to the Basics Community Empowerment, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, and Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund led a petition campaign to shine a light on the forced sterilizations occurring inside California’s prisons and push for reparations for historic and contemporary survivors of sterilization.
We must stand up for the reproductive rights and freedoms of people incarcerated in women’s jails and prisons. Coverage of reproductive rights in mainstream media has worked to garner sympathy and shock for those of us who live outside of prisons, but has largely excluded the reproductive experiences and harms done to incarcerated people.
By not including incarcerated people in this meaningful political moment, we miss the opportunity to mobilize and align across prison walls to collectively challenge the regulation and policing of reproductive health and rights. The movement to restore abortion rights will only create meaningful change if everyone is supported.
This column was produced by Progressive Perspectives, which is run by The Progressive magazine and distributed by Tribune News Service.