Examples Of Forced Sterilization Of Indigenous Women

Introduction

Indigenous have been the main target for forced sterilization. Coerced sterilization of Indigenous women is a violation of human rights, reproductive rights, and an assault on the cultural integrity of Indigenous populations (Shwana et al., 2021). It violates their rights to equality, nondiscrimination, physical integrity, health, and security (Shwana et al., 2021). It is associated with the “eugenics era” in Canada, continuing to undermine Indigenous connections to the land and reduce obligations to them which remains as an act of genocide (Stote, 2022). The purpose of this essay is to explore how eugenics are imposed onto Indigenous women through forced sterilization. This paper argues that eugenic practices reproduce the oppression

In 1922, the UFA passed resolutions that urged the government to suggest laws that allow the segregation of feeble-minded adults during their reproductive years (Grekul et al., 2004). In 1925, the UFA adopted a resolution, which was recommending the suggestion of the sterilization of mentally deficient people (Grekul et al., 2004). By 1928, the Sexual Sterilization Act was passed in Alberta and it was brought in by the UFA, remaining in place under William Aberhart and Ernest Manning (Grekul et al., 2004). Soon after in 1933, the Sexual Sterilization Act also ended up being passed in British

The Act allowed the eugenic boards to assess the mental capacity of women and order a tubal ligation procedure if they were considered ‘mentally defective” (Clarke, 2021).

The Department of Indian Affairs suggested efforts to gain consent for sterilization if possible in 1937, by all means to protect the government from liability and to avoid the impression of “a conspiracy for elimination of the race” (Stote, 2012). The Department of Indian Affairs failed to condemn the practice and this was problematic because of the fiduciary relationship between Canada and Indigenous people which was established through treaties and the occupation of Indigenous lands (Stote, 2012). In the same year in 1937, the Act was amended and the amendment made a distinction between psychotic persons and those considered mentally defective, also eradicating the consent requirement for them (Stote, 2012). In British Columbia from 1935 to 1943, the majority of the people who were sterilized were women and one of the reasons for this was promiscuous behaviour from some people who were sterilized (Stotes, 2012). From 1939 and onwards, the proportion of Indigenous people who were sterilized by the Act had increased and it tripled from 1949 to 1959 (Stote,