Access to Elective Abortions for Female Prisoners under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 652-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avalon Johnson

Victoria, a pregnant inmate housed in a Louisiana state prison, brought a civil rights action challenging the prison’s policy of requiring her to obtain a court order to receive an elective abortion. Although Louisiana state law purported to allow Victoria to obtain an elective abortion, Victoria was unable to obtain her abortion because of procedural delays. Victoria was released from prison before she gave birth but her pregnancy was too far along for her to legally obtain an abortion. She was therefore forced to carry her pregnancy to term and forced to place her newborn child with adoptive parents. Had she given birth in prison, she would have been shackled to her hospital bed, as Louisiana policies require.Little information regarding pregnancy, prenatal care, perinatal outcomes, and access to elective abortions for female inmates exists. We know, however, that between six and ten percent of the women entering jail or prison are pregnant and that more women may become impregnated in prison as a result of rape by prison guards.

Author(s):  
Marta Bodecka-Zych ◽  
Anna Zajenkowska ◽  
Mary Bower Russa

Little research has explored the role of aggression, anger, and family history of incarceration as they relate to female offenders. The current study aimed to address this gap in the literature by investigating these possible risk factors for incarceration among both men and women. The survey involved 123 (61 female and 62 male) prisoners convicted for violent crimes and a comparison group of 118 (60 female and 58 male) adults from the community. We found that women (convicted and non-convicted) were more sensitive to provocation than men, while community adults showed higher levels of trait anger than prisoners. Detainees were more likely than community adults to have a relative in prison. Although male and female inmates were equally likely to have a relative in prison, they differed in their relation to the imprisoned relative. Male and female prisoners showed increased risk for incarceration of same sex, first degree relatives (father and brothers for men, and mothers for women). These results may contribute to improved understanding of incarcerated populations. As such, this represents a critical first step in creating recovery programs that are more gender appropriate.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 378-379
Author(s):  
◽  
Donald Lewis ◽  
George C. Cypress ◽  
Joseph H. Davis ◽  
Ruth C. Harris ◽  
...  

The adoption process in our country traditionally has been designed to safeguard the rights of adoptive parents, insure the solidarity of the adoptive family, and preserve the anonymity of the natural parents. To accomplish this, when adoptions are finalized, the original birth certificate is "sealed" and a new certificate is issued in the name of the adoptive parents. Once sealed, the laws of most states specify that the original record can be opened only by court order and for "just cause." A few states have provisions for opening of the records on demand of the adoptee when that person becomes an adult. This provision often turns out to be true in theory but not in practice, and the definition of "just cause" has varied greatly from court to court. Most adoptive parents have warm and loving relationships with their adoptive children. Most try to pass on to them, at appropriate times, as much of the birth information as they know and are able to provide. Most adoptees have a warm and loving and truly bonded relationship with their adoptive parents. In spite of this, and regardless of their attachment to the adoptive parents, some adoptees, as they reach maturity, have a compelling desire to learn of their natural parent or parents. Many adult adoptees and adoption specialists see this search as essential to the establishment of a sense of identity. Most reports of reunions indicate that adoptees have been pleased with the meeting and that their ties to their adoptive parents have been strengthened thereby.


2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-832
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Wilansky

In Pabon v. Wright, the Second Circuit held that the Fourteenth Amendment right to refuse medical treatment contained a corollary right to the information necessary to make an informed decision. Plaintiff, William Pabon, was an inmate at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York (Green Haven). He named two groups of defendants: his doctors and nurses at Green Haven and his doctors at Dutchess Gastroenterologists, P.C. (Dutchess).In October 1996, a laboratory test indicated that Plaintiff may have contracted Hepatitis C. The Green Haven doctors referred Plaintiff to Dutchess for additional testing, where additional tests confirmed that Plaintiff had Hepatitis C. In July 1997, Plaintiff returned to Dutchess for additional evaluation, and the physicians told him that he must undergo a liver biopsy in order to receive treatment for his condition.


MANASA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-106
Author(s):  
Medwin Wisnu Prabowo

There are many crimes that happened in this era, which one of them is corruption. Corruption has become a major phenomenon for each country in this world. Even more, it is not only male who doing the corruption, but female also. They were get some money to satisfy themselves although they have to break the law. This phenomenon has attracted researcher to study the female inmates who was doing corruption, and its relation to psychopathic symptom. Three female inmates in Sukamiskin Penitentiary Institute Class IIA – Bandung, who were convicted based on corruption cases, were chosen as subjects of this study. The result showed that all of three female inmates have a tendency to become a Psychopath, but in the low level to middle level tendencies. The three dominant Psychopathic Symptoms that found: pathological lying, lack of remorse or guilt, and short-term marital relationships. It can be summarized and recommended that among 3 subjects need to receive a counseling and/or psychoeducation so they will be more honest in their work setting, and to educate them that its important to have a good relationship to build a harmonious family.


Author(s):  
Aleksandra E. Kasantseva ◽  

Adoption is the preferred form of placement of a child without parental care in a family. The advantage of this form of placement is its permanent nature. In addition, the legal rela-tionship arising between the adoptive parent and his or her ancestors and the adopted child and his or her descendants is equivalent to a parental relationship. Like parental legal relation-ships, the legal relationship between adoptive parents and adoptees is presumed to be perpetual. Unlike other entities raising a child without parental care, adoptive parents may give the adopted child a new name and change the date and place of birth. The legal composition giving rise to a family legal relationship between the adoptive parent and his or her ancestors and the adopted child and his or her descendants is the consent of a number of persons. An enforceable court order for the adoption of a child is a confirming legal fact. It con-firms that the consent of all persons and authorities has been obtained and the child has been placed in the adoptive family. The question arises regarding the consent of the child's parents to his adoption. The con-sent to the adoption is equal to their renunciation of the child, which does not contradict the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nevertheless, the rules of the Family Code on adop-tion should not initiate a parent's renunciation of his/her child. A child has the right to live and be brought up in his or her own family and to know his or her parents. If a parent relinquishes his or her child, the parental rights should first be removed and then the child should be put up for adoption without his or her consent. The current legal provisions on adoption have other inaccuracies, which are discussed in this article.


Author(s):  
Derrick Bell

The Emancipation Proclamation remains a positive moment in American history despite its mainly symbolic character. Brown v. Board of Education has achieved and will probably retain similar status. The three decades of campaigning to desegregate school systems, though, came to a less-than-exultant end. Black parents recognized long before their civil rights lawyers that the effort to racially balance the schools was not working. Desegregation plans were designed to provide a semblance of compliance with court orders while minimizing the burden on whites. Judges, many more conservative than their predeces­sors, found ways to declare the schools desegregated even in districts where the percentage of black children rose in the wake of white flight. Finally, the statistics on resegregation of once-nominally desegregated schools painfully underscores the fact that many black and Hispanic chil­dren are enrolled in schools as separate and probably more unequal than those their parents and grandparents attended under the era of “sepa­rate but equal.” Because the value of integrated schooling proved elusive, black parents and educators began looking for a more viable vehicle for their educa­tional goals. The search was opposed by those civil rights leaders who maintained that Brown could only be read to require an end to intentional discrimination against black children through their assignment to integrated schools. With an advocate’s hindsight, Robert Carter suggested that while Brown was fashioned on the theory that equal education and inte­grated education were one and the same thing, the goal was not integration but equal educational opportunity. If equal educational opportunity can be achieved without integration, Carter reasoned, Brown has been satisfied. In this, he parted company with those claiming that the inescapable conclusion of the Court’s decision in Brown is that racial separation is itself an injury, regardless of parity in the facilities. By the time of his article, Carter had been out of the civil rights movement for a dozen years, but he now supported those who focused on quality of education and challenged proponents of racial-balance remedies in the courts. When groups not committed to racial balance obtained a court order for educationally oriented forms of relief, they were often opposed by civil rights organizations committed to inte­gration, who intervened with more expertise and resources. This sometimes resulted in open confrontations between the NAACP and local blacks who favored plans oriented toward improving educational quality.


1982 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-207
Author(s):  
Frédéric Grunberg ◽  
Nasrollah Moamai ◽  
Gilbert Desmarais ◽  
Et Esther Gagné

In this retrospective study 52 patients who had not committed any offence were examined against their will by Court order in the emergency department of a psychiatric hospital. They were compared with a control group of patients reflecting the usual clientele attending without compulsion the emergency department of the same hospital. This research reveals it is the immediate family rather than medico-social agencies that took the initiative in arranging the Court-ordered psychiatric examination. Such patients were no different than the usual patients seen in the emergency department as to age, sex, marital status and past psychiatric history. It was at the level of symptomatology and diagnosis that such patients differed from patients in the control group. The patients refusing to submit to a psychiatric examination not only were more agitated and aggressive, but they were more disorganized, more delusional, and had more hallucinations than the patients in the control group. They were in fact grossly psychotic patients with paranoid and manic features dominating the clinical picture. Our study demonstrated that as far as Montreal is concerned flagrant abuse of civil rights is far more the exception than the rule. Furthermore, if society had to abandon compulsory measures in some cases, it would be the seriously mentally ill who would suffer.


Author(s):  
Caroline Abgoola

The inadequate conditions of imprisonment in South African correctional facilities are well known. Health care, sanitation, food provision, access to education and reading materials, and in particular, the overcrowding, of female prisons are considerable challenges faced by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) regarding the incarceration of female prisoners[i]. A retrospective view of the conditions under which female inmates in South African correctional facilities are incarcerated is examined in this paper. Findings indicate that prison conditions in some South African female correctional facilities are poor: health care and sanitation facilities are largely inadequate, the quality of food is poor, little or no reading materials are made available, and recreational facilities are largely absent. These conditions impact negatively on the female prisoners during, and sometimes, after their incarceration.


Author(s):  
N. Horban ◽  

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the notary's writ of execution as a way of protecting civil rights by a notary and as an executive document. It is determined that the procedure for making a notary's writ of execution on online lending, microcredit, and consumer lending agreements is not perfect. The notary, the executor, and other participants in the relevant notarial and enforcement proceedings perform in the specified proceedings different acts in their external form and direction creating consequences only for the lender and the borrower. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the notary, before making a writ of execution, must establish the affiliation, admissibility, and authenticity of all evidence on the basis of which s/he establishes the indisputability of the debt presence and the existence of all grounds for the writ of execution. It has been suggested that it is necessary to provide for the notary's liability for making a writ of execution, which will later be recognized by the court as unenforceable. Upon receipt of the notary's writ of execution by the enforcement authorities or a private executor, the executor is only obliged to check the presence of all mandatory details specified in part one of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On Enforcement Proceedings". Concerning the fact that under the national legal structure, the factual data contained within the notary's writ of execution are used by the executors as the basis for enforcement proceedings, it is considered a legal necessity to guarantee the borrower the right to receive notification from the notary of the creditor in relation to the request on making a writ of execution on the debt document. Thus, even at the stage of making a writ of execution, the notary must check and establish the indisputability and recognition of the borrower's presence or absence of debt. The author substantiates that such a mechanism should provide effective tools for self-control of the notary and neutralization of illegal sources of factual data, which form the basis of executive inscriptions made by notaries and then recognized in court as unenforceable.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-222
Author(s):  
A Rabiu ◽  
FM Sani ◽  
SM Daneji

Menstrual hygiene management services among female inmates should be in a professional manner equivalent to what is provided in the country. Female prisoners' menstrual patterns could differ from normal due to stress and uncertainty about the future. This cross-sectional survey was aimed to assess the menstrual bleeding pattern of the female prisoners and their menstrual hygiene. It was conducted among three selected Prisons in Kano. Ethical approval was obtained from Ethical Committee of Kano State Ministry of Health. Information such as socio-demographic characteristics, menstrual hygiene and pattern were recorded on a questionnaire. All consenting female prisoners were recruited for the survey. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS Version 26.0.A p-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Their mean age (±SD) was 30.1±3.42 years. The mean menstrual cycle was 28.9 ±4.42 days. The average duration of menstrual flow was 3 ± 1. Thirty-two (33.0%) of the female prison inmates experienced pains during menstruation (dysmenorrhea) while 43 (44.3%) had no dysmenorrhea. Majority of the inmates 83(85.6%) took bath once during menstrual period. More than 4/5th (81.4%) changed their absorbent twice a day during the period. Majority of the female inmates used toilet (80%) as the method of absorbent disposal. In conclusion; the survey showed that female prisoners relatively showed regular and normal menstrual patterns. Menstrual hygiene was relatively poor.


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