Facts about women sterilization
Female sterilization is one of the many procedures of birth control and usually takes several forms. First, there is the method that involves tying, obstructing or the removal of the fallopian tubes or tubal sterilization as it is commonly referred. Then there is hysterectomy that involves the removal of the uterus or the ‘womb’. Despite these birth control methods being preferred by women, we cannot say with certainty that they are problem free. In fact, research has shown that the procedure is considerably more dangerous as compared to the use of IUD or the diaphragm. Also, since sterilization is considered as a major operation, then there has to be the use of anesthesia in the process.
The mortality rate for tubal sterilization, for example, is estimated to affect 25 per 100,000 women. The side effects of such operations inclu
de the proliferation of the uterine walls, bleeding, bowel trauma or even abnormal pains during menstruation. The complication rates for hysterectomy are considerably higher compared to tubal sterilizations with up to 400 deaths reported per 100,000 operations. The sterilization process is usually preceded by certain psychological complications with many women reported to have regrets on their decisions. The effectivity of the sterilization cannot be guaranteed more so in tubal sterilization where the surgical procedure can fail making the tubes to grow back together. There is also the question of whether the whole process is reversible. Although cases of successful reconnections have been reported, it is imperative to keep in mind that chances of a pregnancy being achieved are very minimal. This essay looks into the reasons why sterilization was adopted in Puerto Rico and ho
the process affected women.
History of Female sterilization in Puerto Rico
Although there are numerous examples of eugenic programs in the history of the post-civil war in America, none of them can compare to the massive women sterilization program in Puerto Rico. The United States government, the medical community and the government of Puerto Rico initiated a program that resulted in an unanticipated sterilization of women population, with the method later adopted on a wider scale as a form of birth control. It should be remembered that country has been a colony of the United States since its invasion in 1898. This, therefore, meant that the United States government had absolute control over all the aspects of the Puerto Rican life with the inclusion of its economy. The Puerto Rican Island is made up of an 80% Catholic majority who do not believe in abortion and birth control, making the provision of services that were aimed at preventing pregnancy a felony. This was to change later around the 1930s when the United States government found the environment conducive to the mass sterilization program.
For the United States, there was a need to keep the colonial population of Puerto Rico under control. By 1933, the sugar companies affiliated with the United States government had obtained about 34000 acres. The thousands of impoverished farmers were forced to forfeit their land and consequently began migrating to the cities where they became laborers in sugar plantations. The glaring poverty and unemployment rates served as motivation for the government to intervene with the mandatory sterilization or ‘la oparacion’ being introduced as a measure to suppress these problems (Trias, 2011). There was also the
notion that sterilization of more women will give them more time to work and in the process boost economy since women were considered an important part of the cheap labor force. This was very convenient and timely especially to the new arrivals of the manufacturing companies that needed cheap labor; that is to mean that women had now been freed from childcare and could now be available for employment.
The medical fraternity was by far the most influential sector in the implementation of the program. They consistently pushed for sterilization as a means of birth control armed with the excuse that the contraceptive methods were too complicated for the lower class Puerto Rican women to understand. Many private clinics were later established for the purpose of conducting sterilization procedures. It was common practice at the time to persuade women as soon as they delivered to accept sterilization.
Women’s rights and sterilization abuse
The Puerto Rican women were excited with the news about birth control with everyone eager to give it a try. One of the major loopholes noted in the whole process was that they women were not privy to all the crucial information about this new method. The women targeted were not aware of the irreversibility of the sterilization. In fact, they were even offered longer hours to stay in the hospitals after their delivery if they accepted to undergo sterilization. Since the process is irreversible, the sterilization process terminates a woman’s control over her reproductive ability.
The physicians in Puerto Rico, being proponents of the sterilization as a birth control process for the uneducated women were held in high regard. They, however, used their status to influence
the decision of women. The other forms of contraceptives were not availed to the people who were from a lower class in the society. Offering incomplete or false information, covert coercion and the special funding and propaganda that were being projected especially concerning ‘overpopulation’ were used to obtain consent and force people into accepting sterilization. Withholding of crucial information about the sterilization is a total violation of the women’s rights have control over their bodies and lives. The physicians also knowingly falsified medical records so that they appeared as though sterilization was essential for the women’s health and was even never documented as a means of birth control. Sterilization was also promoted in public schools where a stereotype of small families having more progress, and prosperous life was created (Mjromano, 2008).
Conclusion
The Island of Puerto Rico was not only used as a testing ground for the program, but it was also a form of a laboratory where human lives were equated to that of guinea pigs. Many women later testified of how they became sick after they had been subjected to drugs whose potential dangers were not even known. In summary, we can conclude that the sterilization process was implemented a manner that was unethical in Puerto Rico. This was all under the pretense that it would help control and alleviate the problem of overpopulation. The women should have been allowed to decide on their on whether or not to continue having children.
Reference
- Cuando La Tortilla Se Vuelva: Female Sterilization in Puerto Rico. (2016). Borinquen-llora.blogspot.co.ke. Retrieved 14 May 2016, from http://borinquen-llora.blogspot.co.ke/p/female-sterilization-in-puerto-rico.html mjromano. (2008).
- Forced Sterilization in Puerto Rico. Family Planning. Retrieved from http://stanford.edu/group/womenscourage/cgi-bin/blogs/familyplanning/2008/10/23/forced-sterilization-in-puerto-rico/
- Trias, H. (2011).
Puerto Rico, Where Sterilization of Women Became "La Operacion" | Committee on Women, Population, and the Environment. Cwpe.org. Retrieved 14 May 2016, from http://www.cwpe.org/node/66
