Reproductive Healthcare Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Women

Background and Purpose: Mass incarceration is a key driver of reproductive injustice, restricting access to bodily autonomy and generating chronic reproductive health issues for incarcerated women. Incarcerated women experience a range of reproductive injustices including shackling during childbirth, lack of access to menstrual products, contraception and abortion, and higher rates of undiagnosed or untreated chronic illness. These reproductive oppressions continue to impact their reproductive health long after their release. For instance, incarcerated women experience high rates of cervical and breast cancer due, in part, to limited access to preventive health services during and after incarceration. This study analyzes the embodied stories of formerly incarcerated women through the framework of reproductive justice to highlight the ongoing harms of incarceration on their reproductive lives.

Methods: We invited formerly incarcerated women to participate in body mapping sessions to explore the bodily impacts of incarceration, and the embodied process of healing post-incarceration. We conducted body mapping sessions with 23 formerly incarcerated women in May and June 2024. Six focus group sessions were held in two parts. The first focus group explored the impact of incarceration on health and well-being. The second used body mapping methods to visually represent women's embodied experiences of incarceration and healing. Participants were asked to represent their feelings and sensations associated with incarceration onto their body map. We used constructivist grounded theory methods and constant comparison analysis to code and analyze transcripts of the focus groups.

Findings: Many formerly incarcerated women shared stories of medical trauma, including experiences of neglect, misdiagnoses, lack of access to both preventive and acute care, and chronic pain. For some women, these experiences of medical trauma were directly tied to their gynecological health. Indeed, women shared how inadequate medical care led to the mistreatment and misdiagnosis of various health conditions, resulting in numerous reproductive injustices. For instance, some women mentioned the growth of cancerous tumors while incarcerated, including those on the cervix, as well as noncancerous fibroid tumors affecting the uterus. Additionally, findings suggest that women were fearful of receiving medical care while incarcerated given the long history of coercive contraceptive and sterilization practices, which led to delays in necessary medical treatment. For example, one participant put off fibroid surgery while incarcerated due to this fear: “I was always petrified of the health care in there...I just feel the sterilization situation happened to so many women.” Furthermore, findings demonstrate how these reproductive injustices have visceral sequelae that continue to impact women’s lives post-incarceration. One participant, for example, could still feel a tingling sensation in her ankles years after giving birth while shackled. Together, these findings highlight the injurious nature of incarceration on women’s reproductive lives, both limiting their bodily autonomy and harming their physical health and well-being.

Conclusions and Implications: These findings add depth to the framework of reproductive justice, highlighting how incarceration generates lasting effects on women’s reproductive lives. These findings provide crucial implications for social work research, policy, and practice to advance the right to reproductive justice for current and formerly incarcerated women.