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Review
. 2020 Mar 17:5:2.
doi: 10.1186/s40834-020-00105-w. eCollection 2020.

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

Mishka S Peart  1 , Andrea K Knittel  2
Affiliations
Review

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

Mishka S Peart et al. Contracept Reprod Med. .

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart demonstrating study selection process
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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