SB 1433: Incarcerated persons: contraceptive counseling and services.

Existing law requires that any woman inmate in state prison, or any female confined in a local detention facility, as defined, be allowed to continue to use materials necessary for (1) personal hygiene with regard to her menstrual cycle and reproductive system and (2) birth control measures as prescribed by her physician, upon her request. Existing law requires each and every woman inmate or female confined in a local detention facility to be furnished with information and education regarding the availability of family planning services by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the county, respectively. Existing law requires family planning services to be offered to each and every woman inmate or female confined in a local detention facility at least 60 days prior to a scheduled release date, as specified. Existing law also requires the department or county, respectively, to furnish any woman inmate or female confined in a local detention facility with the services of a licensed physician or with services necessary to meet her family planning needs at the time of her release, as specified, upon her request.

This bill would provide that any person incarcerated in state prison who menstruates shall, upon request, have access to and be allowed to use materials necessary for personal hygiene with regard to their menstrual cycle and reproductive system. The bill would provide that any incarcerated person in state prison who is capable of becoming pregnant shall, upon request, have access to, and be allowed to obtain, contraceptive counseling and their choice of birth control method, as specified, unless medically contraindicated. The bill would require that all birth control methods approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) be made available to incarcerated persons who are capable of becoming pregnant, except as provided, and would require the California Correctional Health Care Services to establish a formulary that consists of all of these birth control methods. The bill would provide that if a birth control method has more than one FDA-approved therapeutic equivalent, only one version of that method shall be required to be made available, unless another version is specifically indicated by a prescribing provider and approved by the chief medical physician at the facility. The bill would require incarcerated persons to have access to nonprescription birth control methods without the requirement to see a licensed health care provider. The bill would require that any contraceptive service that requires a prescription, or any contraceptive counseling, provided to incarcerated persons capable of becoming pregnant, be furnished by a licensed health care provider who has been provided with training in reproductive health care and be nondirective, unbiased, and noncoercive. The bill would require health care providers furnishing contraceptive services to receive specified training. The bill would require a facility to furnish incarcerated persons who are capable of becoming pregnant with information and education regarding the availability of family planning services and their right to receive nondirective, unbiased, and noncoercive contraceptive counseling and services. The bill would require each facility to post this information in conspicuous places, as specified. The bill would require that contraceptive and family planning services be offered and made available to all incarcerated persons capable of becoming pregnant at least 60 days, but not longer than 180 days, prior to a scheduled release date.