Reproductive Health Care for Incarcerated Women

The Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health is a groundbreaking, multi-year initiative to create and promote real policy solutions to address the reproductive health challenges facing cities today. One strategy for achieving this goal is to support local organizations through grants and technical assistance. In this panel, the Urban Initiative will provide a national overview of reproductive health care for incarcerated women along with three promising models from our network.

While prisons are governed at the federal and state levels, the county jail system is governed at the local level, meaning that health care provision in jails varies widely, has little central oversight, and leaves crucial decisions about health care provision to administrators' discretion. Panel speakers will share their strategies for improving reproductive health outcomes for incarcerated women on the city and/or county level. The MOMobile® at Riverside program will highlight their services for pregnant women and women with children under the age of three years who are incarcerated, including educational peer support groups, case management/counseling during incarceration, and reentry services upon discharge. New Voices Pittsburgh will discuss its FOCUS on Women Campaign to win access to standard provision of quality sexual, reproductive and maternal health conditions for incarcerated women and the mobilization of formerly incarcerated women, community stakeholders and policymakers through a training. Aid to Inmate Mothers will discuss their program in Montgomery, Alabama to increase access to reproductive health education in prisons and connect women to County Health Department reproductive health services upon release.