In Texas, for Medicaid patients we have to have a sterilization consent signed 30 days prior to delivery (unless there is an unexpected preterm delivery). Many times we have questioned this policy, as it seems so pointless to deny a woman the right to sterilization—denying them even if they’re already having a cesarean delivery.
I don’t know if this is how the Medicaid sterilization policy came about, but I do know that this is heartbreaking. It’s disgusting and sickening and so so sad to see the evolution of our rights as women throughout the years. We have a long long way to go, but look at where we came from!
No Mas Bebes
Until my next delivery ❤
Categories: Random
ADVENTURES OF A LABOR NURSE 
I think that policy was written to protect people. If I as a provider thought medicaid patients should only have one or two babies it would be very easy to talk someone into signing a consent at the very end of pregnancy. Having a consent signed 30 days in advance makes sure the woman had time to really think about it.
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I wish now that I wouldn’t have said that statement. Lol it’s missing the whole point of the real story. But in regards to what you’re saying, then why can people with private insurance decide at their pleasure? That’s the part that doesn’t make sense.
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Isn’t this a reimbursement issue rather than a consent issue?
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Yes, it’s all about Medicaid reimbursement. If she has private insurance there’s no need for a signed BTL consent, just the general operative consent
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It’s the same in NY
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Same in PA
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This is pretty much the same in many many states. A woman with private insurance can decide after a horrible labor as she is being wheeled into the OR for a section to get her tubes tied. Now, any OB worth their salt would say no, I am not going to tie your tubes. Not now after all you have been through. But the majority will go ahead and tie them. My dear friend and baby sitter delivered via C Section with her third child at 37 weeks and because she was early by a week but not considered pre-term, she did not get her tubes tied as she had planned. They sectioned her for no real reason and then did not tie her tubes as she wanted. She had had 2 previous vaginal deliveries. I was horrified. It happens all the time, all over the US. It is more of a reimbursement thing than a protection thing.
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Same in Ohio. It should be a woman’s right to say when she’s done.
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I don’t know how I feel about this. Yes, it is a women’s right to choose, but is making that decision right before major surgery or right after an emotional or harrowing labor the right time? Especially if its maybe at the suggestion of a provider, worst case scenario a judgmental provider imposing their opinions on who should be having kids?
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In the 60’s there were doctors in Mississippi sterilizing black teens, using there welfare to pay and telling them they were having a regular GYN procedure. I read this a few years ago in a Ladies Home Journal and finally understood that policy!
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