The California Women’s Law Center (CWLC) supports California State Senate Bill 1135 authored by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson.

SB 1135 will prohibit sterilization as a form of birth control for women confined in California correctional facilities and enacts critical safeguards that properly monitor and restrict sterilization procedures to those that are medically needed or necessary and where consent is properly obtained.

CWLC supports SB 1135 because enacted prohibitions and safeguards are necessary to ensure that unconstitutional violations of one of the most basic rights of women are no longer tolerated in California prisons. SB 1135 would ensure that sterilizations are only performed in certain limited circumstances, and not as a form of forced birth control. It would also ensure that women have access to secondary medical opinions to assess the need for any sterilization procedures and access to proper medical and psychological follow-up care when such procedures are necessary. It would also require annual reporting of sterilizations performed disaggregated by race, age, method and medical justification to ensure transparency and prevent the further deprivation of the basic rights of women whose circumstances significantly limit their options.

SB 1135 WAS  ENROLLED AND PRESENTED TO THE GOVERNOR ON 9/25/14.

SAY THANK YOU: to the Governor for signing SB 1135.
Click on the link above and select “SB01135\Inmates: sterilization.” from the drop-down menu under “choose your subject.”