Contraception need and available services among incarcerated women in the United States: a systematic review

Abstract

Context: Seventy-five percent of incarcerated women are of reproductive age, most of whom are at-risk for unintended pregnancy. Women who are incarcerated come disproportionately from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and often lack access to desired reproductive health care. While the carceral system provides a unique opportunity to fill this gap, a better understanding of the contraceptive needs, desires, and plans of incarcerated women is needed to optimize health care provision within the carceral system. A review of current contraceptive services available to women inmates may both identify model care programs and shed light on areas for improvement.

Evidence acquisition: PubMed electronic database used to identify relevant articles published between January 1975 and September 2019 using a systematic review method.

Results: Twenty-five articles met the inclusion criteria and answered four key questions surrounding contraception in the carceral system. Most articles (48%) represented scientific research. Other publications identified by this review were expert commentaries, policy briefings, guidance and recommendations reports, and law and bioethics reviews.

Conclusions: Incarcerated women desire access to standard and emergency contraception from carceral health care systems. Knowledgeable family planning practitioners providing patient-centered and trauma-informed care and public health interventions linking newly released inmates to community clinics can help alleviate inmates' concerns regarding initiating desired contraception while incarcerated.

Keywords: Abortion; Contraception; Incarceration; Systematic review.

Fig. 1

Flow chart demonstrating study selection process