Imprisoned Women and Reproductive Health: A Site of Reproductive Rights Violation?

Reproductive healthcare is a fundamental aspect of women’s rights. Despite this, there has been no systematic approach to the reproductive rights and healthcare of women who are in prison. Approaches to women prisoners have focused on aspects of their reproductive health as ‘issues’ that need to be resolved (such as prenatal care), rather than understanding women’s reproductive healthcare as a fundamental aspect of their lived experiences and rights. Examples of reproductive care and rights include: women’s ability to access contraception and abortion services; to determine when, how and how many children they have; how they parent those children (including suitable childcare arrangements); their reproductive health and access to related screening and healthcare services; and health and personal care for mensuration, this includes access to sanitary products and suitable medical care for related gynaecological conditions. In this chapter we critically analyse approaches to imprisoned women’s reproductive rights and healthcare, advocating that reproductive rights take centre-stage when considering how to support women who are imprisoned