While most of the sterilizations were agreed to by the women, those same women also report being heavily pressured into the surgeries. For instance, one woman reports that, in 2010, a doctor tried to convince her to have a tubal ligation while she was sedated and strapped to a surgical table for a C-section. What’s more, the doctors pushing for and performing sterilizations didn’t have approval from the state to do the procedures at all.
And here’s the part that really stood out to me: When prison staff pushed back against the doctors in 2005 and questioned the fact that women were being sterilized, it wasn’t because the staff was concerned about proper oversight or whether the women were being pushed into making decisions they wouldn’t have made except under duress — it was because the staff was upset the women were getting extra medical services they didn’t “deserve”.
During one meeting in late 2005, a few correctional officers differed with Long’s medical team over adding tubal ligations to a local hospital’s contract, Kelsey, 57, said. The officers viewed the surgeries as nonessential medical care and questioned whether the state should pay.
“They were just fed up,” Kelsey said. “They didn’t think criminals and inmates had a right to the care we were providing them and they let their personal opinions be heard.”
The service was included, however, and Kelsey said the grumbling subsided.
You can read the rest of journalist Corey Johnson’s story at The Center for Investigative Reporting and The Desert Sun. There’s also a report on the matter recently published by The California State Auditor.