[JURIST]

California Governor Jerry Brown was a presented with a bill [SB 1135, text] on Tuesday to ban sterilization of female inmates in California after the California Senate [official websites] unanimously voted to pass the law. The bill bans any form of sterilization in a correctional facility for the purposes of birth control unless there is a medical necessity and there is no other alternate procedure available. Specifically, the bill protects inmates against tubal ligation following a June audit [text, PDF] of jail records indicating that errors were made in obtaining consent for 39 of 144 inmates who received tubal ligation between 2005 and 2011. The bill also contains a provision protecting whistleblowers from retaliation for reporting violations.