Coerced sterilization is one of the significant violations against human rights. The act constitutes ill and cruel treatment of marginalized populations through harmful processes such as tubal ligation, preventing procreation. The main cause of forced sterilization among women is discrimination and systemic institutional racism among immigrants, majorly in European countries. The news and commentary document reflects on coerced sterilization patterns in the United States among marginalized populations. The paper will outline prior knowledge of forced sterilization, coerced sterilization, the connection between sterilizations and eugenics, and the history of forced sterilization.
Before reading about coerced sterilization, one had learned about the inhuman act through an article in 2018. The article outlined how aggressive sterilization law in Canada, which was repealed in 1972, is currently effective. Virdi (2018) outlines that the policies on sterilization in Canada are still effective under the guise of family planning, and it targets men and women who are considered incapable of parenting.
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Coerced sterilizations involve disabling or surgically removing an individual's reproductive organs without their consent. In the United States, compulsory sterilization has been practiced among the people of color, immigrants, and the poor. The procedures are federally funded. Medical practitioners approach women who have undergone coercive medical procedures amid their labor ( CLU news & commentary , 2020) . They are heavily medicated and pressured into signing consent forms, which they do not understand. Coerced women are made to undergo tubal litigation to reduce the birth rate among racial minority groups. The main cause of sterilization abuse is discrimination and intersectional poverty, gender, immigration, and race.
Coerced sterilization and eugenics are connected due to its intentions on the person being exposed to the medical procedure. One of the connections between eugenics and coerced sterilization is based on the groups targeted—both target underprivileged people in society, such as the poor, racial minorities, and immigrants. Nonetheless, the forced sterilization and eugenics were geared towards controlling population among marginalized populations in the United States and Germany societies. For example, in the USA, the procedures were done specifically to the Latino, Blacks, and other groups of people of color. The leading cause of the practice in both countries was to help control the population growth of the marginalized ( CLU news & commentary , 2020) . Both countries inflicted forced form of eugenics and sterilization to its target populations. In the USA, those who were sterilized were not given clear communication regarding the documents they signed related to sterilization. Similarly, Germany's eugenics procedures were purely under the state's control, and those who were subjected to it did not give consent.
The eugenics movement spurred the history of sterilization in the USA after its legalization in the 20 th century. In 1942, counter-movements against eugenics practices were overruled by Skinner in court by recognizing that procreation was a fundamental civil right ( CLU news & commentary , 2020) . However, the waning of eugenics-based sterilization law led to the justification of forced sterilization. Apart from that, after World War II, the concerns related to population control welfare cost due to increased immigrants led to the development of a new era of sterilization to control the population growth rate. Forced sterilization is a human right issue, and thus, it requires more attention. The medical process constitutes an act of torture and discrimination, a case of human rights violation. The procedures are done without an individual's consent, leading to the violation of one's rights to privacy, information, and health decision on the number of children and families. Turning a blind eye by humanitarian organizations and human rights may lead to the marginalized population's continuous exposure to the inhuman act. The challenge may result in a reduction or even extinct in their races in the USA and other countries practicing forced sterilization.
References
CLU news & commentary . (2020, October 23). American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigration-detention-and-coerced-sterilization-history-tragically-repeats-itself/
Virdi, J. (2018). Canada’s Shame: the coerced sterilization of indigenous women. New Internationalist . https://newint.org/features/2018/11/29/canadas-shame-coerced-sterilization-indigenous-women
