Contributor: Rachel Roth
Rachel Roth is a 2006 Soros Justice Fellow who writes about how prisons affect women's reproductive rights. She has worked as a professor and as a research fellow at Ibis Reproductive Health, and is the author of the book Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights, co-author of the report Abortion Funding: A Matter of Justice, and a contributor to Defending Justice: An Activist Research Kit.
3 Submissions.
Women’s Rights Dont Stop at the Jailhouse Door / Prison Industrial Complex
This article is a discussion of incarcerated women’s abortion rights. The article also discusses the difficulties of carrying a pregnancy to term on the inside and the risk that women will lose their parental rights if they have to put their children in foster care.
Motherhood, Reproductive Rights
Reproductive Rights in Theory and Practice: The Meaning of Roe v. Wade for Women in Prison / Prison Industrial Complex
This article is an overview of women’s health care in jails and prisons, with special attention to access to reproductive health services. It was written for the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the theme is that no one really has a “right” or a “choice” if she doesn’t have access to the resources needed to carry out that choice. The article highlights two recent studies that are the result of collaborations between prisoners’ rights groups and public health students.
Health, Reproductive Rights
Pregnant, in Prison and Denied Care / Motherhood
“But what happens to pregnant women in prison before they wind up in chains at a hospital?” asks Rachel Roth. Roth tells three chilling stories of medical neglect and lack of compassion for women awaiting childbirth behind the prison walls.