http://www.impactfund.org/social-justice-blog/reproductive-justice-for-foster-youth
When S.H. entered the foster care system at age twelve, she had already suffered years of sexual abuse by her stepfather. She was around seventeen and a young mother, when her county welfare agency placed her in a Promesa Behavioral Health group home in California. Upon arrival, the group home made S.H. sign a document promising that she wouldn’t engage in sexual activity while she lived there.
S.H. described what happened next: “One day … I asked the manager … to make me an appointment at Planned Parenthood. She told me that Promesa doesn’t “affiliate” with Planned Parenthood. She questioned why I wanted to go there when I had signed a contract saying that I would not have sex. … I didn’t want to tell her that I needed Plan B, because I would get in trouble since I wasn’t supposed to have sex.”
The group home didn’t allow S.H. to visit Planned Parenthood. Later, after she experienced unexplained bleeding, S.H. found out that she was pregnant: “The Promesa staff was really upset when they found out that I was pregnant. … [The group home manager] said that I was “off program,” which means I had privileges taken away, including my visits home to my mom and with my baby. [She] tried to pressure me into getting an abortion. … I decided I just couldn’t do it and told the house manager. When my house manager found out, she got upset. She wouldn’t let me go on an outing with the rest of the girls. I also wasn’t allowed to go to the store to buy things like toiletries, even though the other girls were allowed to do this. The worst part was that the group home wouldn’t let me visit with my daughter as punishment.”
S.H. later learned that her bleeding was the result of a miscarriage: “Once my house manager found out about the miscarriage, I stopped being punished.”
S.H. is not alone in her experiences. Numerous foster youth and former staff members have reported that Promesa staff refuse to permit youth to obtain health services from their provider of choice, including Planned Parenthood; force them to waive their right to confidential medical care; and require them to sign abstinence agreements. They indicate that Promesa staff frequently search foster youth’s belongings for contraceptives, such as condoms; confiscate any contraceptives found; and punish youth who have them, by taking away youth’s so-called “privileges,” such as visiting family members.
Promesa’s practices make no sense. Young women in California’s foster care system experience significantly higher rates of unwanted teen pregnancy and childbirth than their counterparts who are not in care. More than 25% have been pregnant at least one time, compared to about ten percent of female youth nationally. Young people in the foster care system have trouble getting and using contraception, including condoms. Although 70% did not categorize their pregnancy as wanted, only 25% were using some form of birth control at the time that they conceived. Foster youth also struggle with access to proper prenatal care during pregnancy: 20% of those who have been pregnant reported that they received no prenatal care at all during pregnancy.
Promesa’s practices are not only contrary to good public health policy; they also violate the law. The California constitutional right to privacy protects the fundamental right of California adolescents to retain personal control over the integrity of their bodies and to decide whether and when to parent. California’s medical confidentiality statutes additionally provide adolescents with the right to control and limit the release of information regarding reproductive and sexual health services they receive.
In order to protect and defend foster youth, the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) with Impact Fund support, and its legal co-counsel, Keker & Van Nest LLC, have filed a lawsuit in Fresno Superior Court, seeking to protect and enforce the privacy rights of young women living in Promesa group homes. The lawsuit on behalf of Planned Parenthood, S.H., and other foster youth with similar experiences, challenges Promesa’s practices that deny foster youth reproductive and sexual health care services and information to which they are legally entitled.
NCYL is taking action to stop these practices, because it is critical for foster youth to have their healthcare and their privacy protected.
Official lawsuit PDF: http://www.ppactionca.org/news/pdf/2016 ... awsuit.pdf
This is an issue that combines a lot of different angles and issues, primarily the birth control question and the rather infamous substandards that the American foster system has been known to fall into, as well the regulation of women's bodies, including "at risk" women.
I don't think many people will disagree that Promesa was in the wrong with its actions but may disagree about how and why they were wrong. Personally, I think they are wrong for the same reason that many that fall into their line of thinking are wrong - the idea that issues can be solved by demanding that people force themselves into a mold of morality or risk punishment. The idea that we should be treating adults and older teens the same way we treat toddlers. The idea that being under the care of the state somehow means you lose basic human rights and should be at the complete and utter mercy of those you are placed with. The idea that the only possible way to avoid the negative consequences of sex is to deny your basic adult human instincts and instead be a walking purity vessel. You know, that crap.
Oh, and that bit about how they "don't affiliate" with Planned Parenthood yet wanted to force her into getting an abortion gave me a dark hoot too.
The floor is yours, NSG.
