Ensuring OB–GYN Care in Prisons Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Ensuring OB-GYN Care in Prisons Act replaces current law's general direction that the Bureau of Prisons provide access to a gynecologist as appropriate. Every BOP facility incarcerating female prisoners must employ at least one full-time obstetrician-gynecologist certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Director may employ more than one.
Each female prisoner must receive an initial visit within 14 days after imprisonment. Required services include menstrual care and pain management, contraceptive counseling and access, diagnosis and treatment of gynecological conditions, guideline-consistent cancer screening, prenatal and pregnancy screening, postpartum care, and screening for postpartum depression.
Patients receive informed consent, the right to refuse nonemergency care, and communication in their preferred language. Care must use trauma-informed standards for survivors of sexual violence. When the OB-GYN determines another specialist is medically necessary, BOP must arrange referral, transportation, and security without delay and may not deny care because of cost or staffing constraints.
A required OB-GYN vacancy must be filled within 42 days. Beginning one year after enactment and annually thereafter, BOP must report facilities with filled and vacant positions, vacancy duration, visits, clinician hours, births, high-risk pregnancies, pregnancy-related deaths, and newborn deaths.
Who Benefits and How
Female prisoners, pregnant prisoners, postpartum patients, survivors of sexual violence, and prisoners needing specialty referrals gain guaranteed and timely reproductive health care. Board-certified OB-GYNs gain federal employment opportunities. Congress and prison-health advocates gain recurring facility-level performance information.
Who Bears the Burden and How
BOP must recruit and retain a full-time specialist at every facility housing women, including locations with small populations or difficult labor markets. Federal accounts bear salary, clinical, transport, security, language, and referral costs. Facilities cannot use cost or staffing as a reason to deny medically necessary referral care, and vacancies must be filled within 42 days.
Key Provisions
- Requires a full-time board-certified OB-GYN at each covered facility.
- Requires an initial visit within 14 days.
- Requires menstrual, contraceptive, diagnostic, and cancer care.
- Requires prenatal, postpartum, and depression screening.
- Protects informed consent and refusal of nonemergency care.
- Requires preferred-language communication.
- Requires trauma-informed care for sexual-violence survivors.
- Requires medically necessary specialist referrals.
- Bars referral denial based on cost or staffing.
- Requires vacancies to be filled within 42 days.
- Requires annual facility-level health and staffing reports.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Replaces the Bureau of Prisons' general duty to provide gynecologist access as appropriate with a full-time board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist at every facility housing female prisoners, specified visits and services, consent and trauma protections, timely specialist referrals and vacancy filling, and annual facility-level reporting.
Key Policy Areas
Federal Prison Health Care, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maternal Health, Prisoner Rights, Bureau of Prisons Oversight
Primary Purpose
Replaces the Bureau of Prisons' general duty to provide gynecologist access as appropriate with a full-time board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist at every facility housing female prisoners, specified visits and services, consent and trauma protections, timely specialist referrals and vacancy filling, and annual facility-level reporting.
Policy Domains
Sections 2 and 3 mandatory OB-GYN staffing, care standards, referrals, vacancy deadline, and annual report
Identified Gains
- Female federal prisoners
- Pregnant federal prisoners
- Postpartum federal prisoners
- Prisoners needing gynecological cancer screening
- Survivors of sexual violence in federal custody
- Board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists
- Prison-health oversight organizations
- Congressional prison-oversight committees
Identified Costs
- Bureau of Prisons health administrators
- Federal prison facility budgets
- BOP medical recruitment staff
- Correctional transport officers
- Federal accounts funding specialist care
- Facilities in OB-GYN shortage areas
- BOP data-reporting staff
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Mrs. Foushee (for herself, Ms. Ansari, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Mr. Johnson …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
BOP data-reporting staff, BOP health-quality officials, BOP medical recruitment staff
Positive-direction: BOP health-quality officials, Congressional prison-oversight committees
Negative-direction: BOP data-reporting staff, BOP medical recruitment staff, Bureau of Prisons health administrators, Correctional transport officers, Facilities in OB-GYN shortage areas, Facility medical-records staff, Federal accounts funding specialist care, Federal prison facility budgets
Female federal prisoners, Postpartum federal prisoners, Pregnant federal prisoners
Board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists, Clinicians lacking specified board certification, Employed prison obstetrician-gynecologists
Positive-direction: Board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists, Outside medical specialists receiving referrals
Negative-direction: Clinicians lacking specified board certification, Employed prison obstetrician-gynecologists
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "director"
- → BOP Director staffing facilities and arranging referrals
- "overseer"
- → Congressional office reviewing annual BOP data
- "prisoner"
- → Female prisoner receiving gynecological or obstetric care
- "physician"
- → Board-certified OB-GYN employed full time by BOP
- "specialist"
- → Outside medical specialist receiving a referral
Note: {'scope_ids': ['bop_obgyn_staffing_and_oversight'], 'description': 'The bill replaces flexible access-as-appropriate language with one full-time ABOG-certified specialist at every facility housing women, regardless of census or location, and prohibits cost or staffing denials without expressly appropriating funds or supplying a temporary vacancy exception.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The first required visit between each female prisoner and the facility's employed OB-GYN no later than 14 days after imprisonment.
A Bureau of Prisons facility at which female prisoners are incarcerated and at least one full-time board-certified OB-GYN is required.
Care determined necessary by the employed OB-GYN that BOP must arrange without transport or security delay and may not deny for cost or staffing reasons.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology