Bonta Seeks Jails' Compliance on Inmate Reproductive Health Care Rights
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- California Attorney General Rob Bonta is conducting a review of the state's jails in order to ensure they are complying with state and federal laws that guarantee inmate access to reproductive health care.
On Friday, Bonta sent letters to every sheriff in the state that manages a jail system asking them to send back confirmation they are following the law.
"An initial review of county jail policies indicated that many are not in compliance with state and federal laws," according to a news release Bonta sent out Monday.
In order to determine if the sheriffs are in compliance, Bonta is asking them to send his office copies of their current custody manual, copies of contracts with private facilities that house or provide healthcare services to inmates and copies of their jail policies on the rights of pregnant inmates, "including the right to pregnancy testing, consent to pregnancy testing, and the right to abortion," according to the letter.
One of the laws in question, Assembly Bill 732, was authored by Bonta in 2020 when he was in the California Assembly, and requires county jails to ensure that inmates are offered voluntary pregnancy tests, obstetrics exams and regular prenatal care visits, among other things.
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