When Doctors Took ‘Family Planning’ Into Their Own Hands

"She already had five kids" is personally very painful to hear. I have 6 older siblings. Someone who believes that a woman should not have several children believes I should not exist.

The political fear-mongering regarding the shift away from dominant white/European no doubt impacts what is done today - and whatever it is, it will no doubt be decades before we truly know...

Not all immigrants have been afforded an education. Printing explanations in another language is not adequate if the woman has not been taught to read. Explaining the procedure in the native language and allowing questions might be workable. Having an education is a gift we Americans are given. Not all nations provide public education.

Good article. I can also remember the opposite here in Montana in the 1970's when a woman needed to pass a mathematical formula to become sterilized. It was her age plus the number of children she had. I don't know when that stopped or if it was a local thing.

Women, of course, should have complete control over their reproductive decisions. Thank you for this article.

In the early 70's, shortly after I moved from LA to Atlanta, I was had an abnormal Pap smear. I returned to Los Angeles to seek medical help and was referred to the California Cancer Center for a cervical cone biopsy. Before I received the results of the biopsy, a nurse came into my hospital room to sedate me. She asked me to sign a consent form to perform a hysterectomy. I asked her if the biopsy had come back positive for cancer and she said she didn't know. I asked to speak to the doctor before signing and before she gave me the injection. When the doctor informed me there were no signs of cancer at the edges of the cone and the biopsy had probably resolved the problem, I asked why he had scheduled an unnecessary hysterectomy. He told me (with a straight face) that this operation would resolve the possibility of any future occurrence. Keep in mind I was 25 years old at the time with no children.

I asked if this was normal procedure and he very honestly informed me that it was for Minority women. He told me if I ever wanted to have children, I should probably check myself out of the hospital immediately - which I did.

Now, over 40 years later with 1 daughter and no reoccurrence of abnormal Pap smears, I saw "No Mas Bebes" and realized how lucky I was to get a doctor with at least a shred of conscience. It seems many women weren't so fortunate.

I watched it on PBS last night. It's a shocking story. It's hard to believe the medical community were "well meaning". It's just one more example of the ugly consequences of the arrogance and ignorance imbedded in sexual inequality It's especially shocking that it came directly from doctors who are supposed to "do no harm". Now a documentary needs to be done about the horrors played out on Native American children over the decades, and some relatively recently, by the government and medical community.

In 1971, as a ward clerk in Florida's Broward General Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, part of my job was to get signatures from women, groggy from anesthetic, to authorize tubal ligations. It was my first job and I was very young, and I did notice that the patients were mostly black women. I didn't know enough to question doctors' orders or hospital regimen. Those were the days when zero population was touted as a goal, the medical profession was revered, and the two combined to present the illusion of competence in a world that seemed to be in a death spiral, unless someone calmly and quietly took the controls to wrench it back on course.

How is this different from the Democratic advocacy for Planned Parenthood and abortion. Progressives still believe that zero population growth is a desirable objective and they favor diminishing reproduction of the poor.

The pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. Now, barriers strongly deter sterilization of women on Medicaid. They must be over 21, even if they've already had 6 children by the age of 20! They must sign consent at least a month in advance, and if the paperwork is not filled out perfectly, and is not present at the hospital at the time of birth, the woman may not be given a postpartum tubal ligation (the easiest time to do it).

Yet tubal ligation reversal is available free and on demand to Medicaid patients, no matter how many children they've already had.

I'm not getting the connection with the requirement for proof of identity for someone to get a copy of a birth certificate in Texas with this coerced sterilization practice.

Just imagine what would have happened if a forcible vasectomy were performed on one of these male physicians.

Here in the Northeast, things were going the other way, with a friend's mother refused sterilization--despite already having a dozen kids--by her Catholic physician.

It can be very difficult for a male to wrap his mind around a woman's *right to choose.* Particularly males who are either accustomed to having a lot of power, or who have little power in other realms and seek it wherever they can get it.

I was voluntarily sterilized and it is a major decision in life. I am very glad the procedure was done and have no regrets. I had to be interrogated by four different MDs before they were willing to comply with my request. They did not believe that I really wanted to do it but finally I convinced them.

Sterilization should only be done by choice and with time to think about it and of course using one's native language so there is full comprehension of the consequences. Frankly, it should probably only be done if the patient herself brings it up and requests it. I suspect it is rarely done ethically if the MD or other health personnel bring it up first. That seems very suspicious.