Alameda County Sheriff Sued for Forcing Women To Take Pregnancy Tests

The Alameda County Sheriff’s
Department has a policy of requiring that every woman under 60
taken into custody submit to a pregnancy test. This, argue some
wome who were forced to pee on a stick, is a violation of their
privacy, and they’re working with the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) to put an end to the practice.

While the protocol is intended to provide the arrestees with
necessary medical care, it doesn’t seem to work that way in
practice. One plaintiff, Nancy Macias, who was detained during a
political protest in 2012,
said that “being forced to submit a pregnancy test against my
will was not about my health. It was invasive, offensive, and
humiliating.” KTVU
reports that “while [Macias] was forced to undergo a pregnancy
test, she also told authorities she was diabetic and needed
insulin. In her part of the suit, she claims her request for
medication was ignored” and “she agreed to take the test only after
she was threatened with transfer to Santa Rita jail.”

“I was intimidated and bullied by the female officer who was
processing me. I felt completely violated. We don’t want other
women to go through this,” one of the plaintiffs who remains
unnamed told the Oakland Tribune.

The San Francisco Chronicle
shares the sheriff’s side of the story:

On Monday, Sgt.
J.D. Nelson, a sheriff’s spokesman… said [the departmen] had
been sued in the past for not conducting pregnancy tests. Nelson
said the office settled the suit, at least a decade ago, by making
the tests mandatory. He did not have further details on the case or
the opposing parties.

“If you tell us that we have to test people and then tell us
that we can’t test people, what can we do?” he asked.

The ACLU’s answer is that the tests should be voluntary, because
compulsory testing inpinges upon the arrestees’ Fourth Amendment
rights. The lawsuit
explains:

the test violates arrestees’ right to privacy” and “constitutes
an unlawful search and seizure under the state and federal
constitutions; and it violates… the California Code of Regulations,
which requires jails to allow mentally competent inmates to refuse
non-emergency medical care and mandates that all examinations,
treatments and procedures conducted in jail accord with the same
informed-consent standards that apply outside of jail.

“As far as we know, Alameda County is the only county in the
state that is doing this,” Elizabeth Gill, a senior staffer with
the ACLU of Northern California told the Associated Press, which
also
reports that “the organization has corresponded with the
sheriff’s office about the issue for several years.”