re: #29 William Barnett-Lewis

It’s unclear right now. The Israeli health minsitry put out an order that no Ethiopian women are to be given depo-provera without being fully informed and were in no way to be pressured to take it. Some are saying this is an admission that this did occur, others say that this was just to calm fears and backfired.

Meanwhile, a number of Ethopian Jewish women have said they were pressured or tricked into talking it.

The usage of depo-provera by Ethiopian Jews is far, far higher than for average Jews, to the extent that while being about 1-2% of the population they’re accounting for >50% of the depo-provera use in the country.

The argument has been made that this is explained by cultural reasons— the ethiopian women wanting to hide the contraception from their husbands. I haven’t seen any actual support for this argument.

So the biggest thing that needs explaining is what’s up with this enormously high depo-provera rate among Ethiopian Jews in Israel, and the individual women’s stories of being tricked or pressured.

Nothing definitive has been shown yet.