Calif. officials demand answers over unauthorized female inmate sterilizations

Fox News - WASHINGTON –  California lawmakers are demanding to know why doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates in four years without required state approval and, as some claim, strongly pressured or even tricked some of the women into signing off.

One doctor even allegedly suggested that the procedures would help the state save on welfare.

While not part of a formal sterilization program, the surgeries were performed with alarming frequency. At least 148 women in the California prison system were sterilized by tubal ligation without state approval between 2006 and 2010, confirmed Joyce Hayhoe, director of legislation for the California Correctional Health Care Services. The story was first reported by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Tubal ligation is when a woman’s fallopian tubes are clamped and blocked or severed and sealed, which then prevents eggs from reaching the uterus for fertilization. The procedure is considered permanent and requires patients to undergo general anesthesia.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/15/california-lawmakers-demand-answers-on-148-unauthorized-female-inmate/#ixzz2ZDe0zDyp