By Ligia Rivera, Director of Community Mobilization Programs, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
“You are getting la operación? You’re going to be sterilized for the rest of your life?â€? I said to my friend RosalÃa recently. “Yes, I will,â€? she replied. With those three simple words, my friend threw into question all the hours I’ve spent learning and training others on reproductive justice. What else could I have said to a single undocumented mother of two, working a low wage job? RosalÃa, like many other immigrant women, came to this country to escape from extreme post-civil war violence, risking her life and the lives of her children by crossing the Rio Grande on an inner tube. After realizing how lucky she was to be living in one of the four US states that offer prenatal care to undocumented, uninsured women, she felt comforted when the medical staff at her local clinic sympathized with her daily struggles and encouraged her to get sterilized as a long term birth control option.
Is this just a new type of coercion meant to strip immigrant women of their reproductive freedom? While some white women still find it hard to convince their doctors to sterilize them, there is a long history of sterilization abuse against women of color. The sterilization of more than a third of women of child-bearing age in Puerto Rico in the 1940s along with the lawsuit against USC-Los Angeles County Medical Center in the 1970s for the coercive sterilization of low-income and primarily Spanish-speaking patients are both a testament to how women of color have experienced sterilization differently. Although significant progress has been made, including federal guidelines to regulate sterilization procedures, I wonder how much oversight still exists and to what extent our movement is aware of the continuing abuses and undercover coercive medical practices.
As I prepare to speak to my friend about the history of sterilization, abuses against women of color and the long-lasting effects of her decision, I examine my own motivations. Am I infringing upon my friend’s right to self-determination with my privileged Latina discourse? I think I am not. I am not only a Latina; I am a proud reproductive justice advocate for whom silence is not an option.
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"Am I infringing upon my friend’s right to self-determination with my privileged Latina discourse?"
Yes. Why would you assume that she is unable to make a permanent decision about her reproductive future? She is an adult, no?
...
But if your friend made an informed decision to have this form of long-term birth control, and was not "coerced" into doing so by her clinic, what's the deal?
I'd hope we were into helping the modern female make informed decisions for themselves, not simply suggesting all forms of this "injustice" of repro rights are wrong.
I think that if this is all she was encouraged to do (get sterilized) then no, you are not infringing on her right by simply informing her of other options. I am assuming, based on your article, that this was the only form of birth control she was encouraged to pursue.
However, once you do speak with her, if sterilization is still her choice, then at that point I think you would have to respect her decision, as I am sure you would.
"While some white women still find it hard to convince their doctors to sterilize them, there is a long history of sterilization abuse against women of color."
...and there is also a long history of forced-breeding abuse against women of color (for one example, see Gooday's case mentioned at http://www.endfistula.org/family_planning.htm ). No matter if RosalÃa gets sterilized or not, she will be as fertile as someone whose reproductive rights were violated.
"I think that if this is all she was encouraged to do (get sterilized) then no, you are not infringing on her right by simply informing her of other options. I am assuming, based on your article, that this was the only form of birth control she was encouraged to pursue.
"However, once you do speak with her, if sterilization is still her choice, then at that point I think you would have to respect her decision, as I am sure you would."
Right on. Both "sterilization is only OK if you're not white" and "sterilization is only OK if you're white" are racist...
Hmmm, are you thinking that they are withholding information from her, that she is unable to get elsewhere? Are they lying to her ("sterilization is just for a year!")?
Or is it simply econimics? It is much, much cheaper in the long run to get sterilization than to have a life of birth control (or bc and kids). Perhaps she realizes that she will, for various economic and political reasons, never be able to afford another kid. Is it wrong to make an informed decision like that?
All in all, I say- trust women to know what they want to do with their bodies.
"Perhaps she realizes that she will, for various economic and political reasons, never be able to afford another kid. Is it wrong to make an informed decision like that?"
For that matter, for all I know she expects to be able to afford another kid someday and is still happy to stay a mom of 2 kids instead of wanting to have another.
Of course, Mina, I don't presume to know her financial situation. I meant my question in a more broad sense- why is a sterilization demonized so much? Why can't women make informed decisions based on their financial abilities? Why should women have babies they can't afford? I struggle with this, but I can't quite believe that parenting is a right and I can't believe that the decision to have children one can't afford in a non-solized health care place such as America is a good idea.
In addition to the question about why sterilization is so demonized, I'd really like to know how this woman's choice is detrimental to other women of color.
Maybe I am dense, but I'm not seeing a connection. Why should Rosalia remain fertile (or resort to hormonal bc, IUD or something less reliable) just because other women have been coerced into sterilization?