Bridging the Gaps: State Level Restrictions and Policy Recommendations for Abortion Access in U.S. Prisons

• In Event: 2433 - Law and Gender

Abstract

There are significant gaps in the bodies of knowledge surround abortion and autonomy when it comes to incarcerated individuals in state level facilities. Six to ten percent of women entering female and co-ed prisons in the United States are pregnant when they arrive at their correctional facility. An unknown number of incarcerated women will become pregnant through abuse from correctional facility guards after entering their correctional facility. However, while there are more than 12,000 women pregnant in correctional facilities, there are no nationally agreed upon standards for abortion access in state prisons, and multiple states leave decisions regarding access to reproductive health care up to individual facilities. In addition, the body of research concerning this topic, has primarily focused on constitutionality and the Circuit Court split. This laser focus on constitutionality, along with the current discourses surrounding abortion access, ignores the individuals currently incarcerated who are impacted by experiences theorized in discourses. The research in this paper seeks to determine what abortion access looks like for incarcerated individuals in state level prisons within the United States, in addition to addressing the question of how accessibility to this medical service can be protected on the legal level, and how institutions can be held accountable.

Author

• Oliver Sylvia Richards