Peruvian Government Accused Of Secretly Sterilizing Thousands Of Women
Hundreds of women in Peru who believe they’re infertile may actually be the victims of a horrible government policy that led to them being sterilized. The country’s attorney general says there are about 2,000 documented cases of women who had their tubes tied without their consent under a program meant to provide birth control options to deal with the country’s high birth rate.
CNN reports that last month Special Prosecutor Victor Cubas reopened an investigation into allegations that President Alberto Fujimori’s government ordered sterilization quotas in the 1990s. About 300,000 women participated in a birth control campaign that involved several methods, including “voluntary contraceptive surgery.” The problem is, many women say they were coerced into signing consent forms, or even given the surgury while doctors were performing another procedure. Human rights attorney Rossy Salazar says:
“What happened was that [the government] instituted a policy of quotas, in a way forcing and giving incentives to doctors, gynecologists and nurses to sterilize a minimum of three women every month.
The attorney general’s office says that based on how many women participated in the program, the number of victims is probably much higher. It’s also believed that the plan may have targeted poor rural women who don’t speak Spanish.