Abstract
Problem Significance
Unintended pregnancy is a public health concern with social, economic, and health implications for both women and children when unintended pregnancies are carried to birth. Women more likely to experience incarceration disproportionately experience unintended pregnancy at higher rates than other women.
Analysis and Objectives
Power dynamics between correctional officers and inmates, the history of coerced sterilization, and limited access to family planning services decrease incarcerated women’s autonomy to make reproductive health choices. Incarcerated women view their time incarcerated as an opportunity to focus on improving their life and desire education on family planning and access to contraception prior to release.
Intervention (Solution) Proposal
This project can serve as part of a comprehensive family planning program for incarcerated women, a population that has historically faced coercion or restrictions on access to reproductive health services. The proposed intervention utilizes a reproductive justice framework that supports incarcerated women’s autonomy in decisions related to their reproductive health.
Recommendations and Conclusions
Family planning education is part of a multi-layer intervention intended to be implemented during the period of incarceration alongside other necessary interventions. Efforts to change the culture of mistrust and medical abuse within the prison environment will strengthen interventions empowering incarcerated women to autonomously make reproductive health decisions by eliminating the determinants that inhibit them from utilizing reproductive health services.