reproductive health

California Penal Code § 3440 establishes a categorical prohibition on the sterilization of incarcerated individuals for the purpose of birth control. The statute provides that a sterilization procedure shall not be performed on any person who is an inmate of a state prison, under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or confined in a local detention facility, for birth control purposes regardless of whether the person claims to consent. The statute does not carry a standalone criminal penalty but prohibits the procedure.

In Catholic Charities of Sacramento, Inc. v. Superior Court of Sacramento County, a religiously-affiliated non-profit-organization challenged California’s Women’s Contraception Equity Act (WCEA), which required certain health and disability insurance contracts that covered prescription drugs to include coverage for prescription contraceptives.

In June Medical Services v.

The defendant was prosecuted in the Supreme Court of Seychelles for procuring an abortion, violating Section 148 of the Penal Code. The defendant was charged with unlawfully administering pills to induce a miscarriage. She pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for her actions. In sentencing, the Court imposed a two-year suspended sentence together with a monetary fine, taking into account her plea and contrition.

In 2008, a parliamentary minority petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare a Ministry of Health decree that authorized the availability of family planning methods and the distribution of emergency contraception in public health centers to be unconstitutional. The Court held that the “right to life,” as enshrined in the Chilean Constitution, outweighed access to emergency contraception. It rejected scientific arguments that emergency contraception does not affect a conceived but not yet implanted embryo.