Yet, Kimberly Jeffrey says she was pressured by a doctor while sedated and strapped to a surgical table for a C-section in 2010, during a stint at Valley State for a parole violation. Jeffrey, 43, was horrified, she said, and resisted.
“He said, ‘So we’re going to be doing this tubal ligation, right?’ ” Jeffrey said. “I’m like, ‘Tubal ligation? What are you talking about? I don’t want any procedure. I just want to have my baby.’ I went into a straight panic.”
Jeffrey provided copies of her official prison and hospital medical files to CIR. Those records show Jeffrey rejected a tubal ligation offer during a December 2009 prenatal checkup at Heinrich’s office. A medical report from Jeffrey’s C-section a month later noted that she again refused a tubal ligation request made after she arrived at Madera Community Hospital.
At no time did anyone explain to her any medical justifications for tubal ligation, Jeffrey said.
That experience still haunts Jeffrey, who lives in San Francisco with her 3-year-old son, Noel. She speaks to groups seeking to improve conditions for female prisoners and has lobbied legislators in Sacramento. Jeffrey recently completed her ACT college-entrance test and hopes to pursue a degree at San Francisco State University.
“Being treated like I was less than human produced in me a despair,” she said.
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Very often, even sophisticated activists can’t explain why prison/police violence is a Feminist issue (ahem, *F*eminists)—except maybe “well, mothers/sisters have sons/brothers who go to prison!” That is true. But women (and especially women of color and especially trans women of color and gender non-conforming people of color) are ALSO on the receiving end of horrific violence in prison—except that it is gendered such that we don’t see it or don’t even necessarily disagree with the violence (like: sterilizing “Welfare Queens” or “Illegals.”
Sterilization under threat, without knowledge or in exchange for certain privileges is a gross violation of humanity. Prison violence is a feminist issue. Prison violence happens to people who are not men. It is imperative that we ask and completely understand why so many of us don’t know this already.
(via midwestmountainmama)