Inmates in White County, Tennessee are being offered a 30 day credit toward jail time in exchange for agreeing to receive birth control implants or vasectomies.
The program was signed into order on May 15 by General Sessions Judge Sam Benningfield and so far 32 women have received Nexplanon birth control implants, which prevent pregnancy for up to four years, and 38 men are waiting to have a free vasectomy procedure performed by the Tennessee Health Department.
“I hope to encourage them to take personal responsibility and give them a chance, when they do get out, to not to be burdened with children. This gives them a chance to get on their feet and make something of themselves,” Judge Benningfield said in an interview with News Channel 5.
The ACLU has called the order unconstitutional and released the following statement on Wednesday:
“Offering a so-called ‘choice’ between jail time and coerced contraception or sterilization is unconstitutional. Such a choice violates the fundamental constitutional right to reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity by interfering with the intimate decision of whether and when to have a child, imposing an intrusive medical procedure on individuals who are not in a position to reject it. Judges play an important role in our community – overseeing individuals’ childbearing capacity should not be part of that role.”
