Pregnant women in America’s prisons are being shackled to their beds and cells. Others are being sterilized, some say, against their will. Correctional institutions claim the policies are for safety’s sake, and that consent is always obtained. But others see a larger pattern at work. On this edition, from shackling to sterilization, thousands of incarcerated people are struggling to maintain control over their own reproductive health.
Featuring:
Courtney Hooks, Justice Now! campaign and communications director; Tina Reynolds, Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH) co-founder and chair; Samantha Rogers, California Coalition for Women Prisoners assistant; Karen Shain, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children former policy director; Victoria Law, “Resistance Behind Bars” author; Kimberly, formerly incarcerated mother; Joe Higgins, Rappahannock Regional Jail superintendent; Carolyn Sulfrin, former prison nurse.
Thank You to the Mary Wohlford Foundation and the Omnia Foundation for partial funding of this program.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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