Editing Compulsory sterilization (section)

==Affected populations==

Governmental family-planning programs emerged in the late 1800s, and have continued to progress through the 21st century. During this time, feminists began advocating for reproductive choice, but eugenicists and hygienists were advocating for low-income and disabled peoples to be sterilized or have their fertility tightly regulated, in order to "clean" or "perfect" nations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Population and Reproductive Rights: Feminists Perspectives from the South|last=Correa|first=Sonia|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|year=1994|isbn=978-1856492843|location=London|page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7dbzfZ5EDLsC&pg=PA11 }}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America|last=Solinger|first=Rickie|publisher=New York University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0814798287|location=New York|page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ngTCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA90}}</ref> The second half of the 20th century saw national governments' uptake of [[neo-Malthusian]] ideology that directly linked population growth to increased (and uncontrollable) poverty, which, during the embrace of capitalism, meant that countries were unable to economically develop due to this poverty.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

Much of these governmental population control programs were focused on using sterilization as the main avenue to reduce high birth rates, even though public acknowledgement that sterilization made an impact on the population levels of the developing world is still widely lacking.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Matters of Choice: Puerto Rican Women's Struggle for Reproductive Freedom|last=Lopez|first=Iris|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0813543734|location=New Brunswick|page=xiii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pGzdr4r1pMMC&pg=PR13}}</ref> Early population programs of the 20th century were marked as part of the eugenics movement, with [[Nazi eugenics|Nazi Germany's programs]] providing the most well-known examples of sterilization of disabled people.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Polish Doctor in the Nazi Camps: My Mother's Memories of Imprisonment, Immigration, and a Life Remade|last=Rylko-Bauer|first=Barbara |author-link=Barbara Rylko-Bauer |publisher=University of Oklahoma |year=2014 |isbn= 978-0806145860|pages=91–92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2VrqAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 }}</ref> In the 1970s, population control programs focused on the "third world" to help curtail over population of poverty areas that were beginning to "develop" (Duden 1992).

As of 2013, 24 countries in Europe required sterilization for legal gender recognition and 16 countries did not provide for any possibility to change legal gender at all, which meant that transgender people could have challenges applying for jobs, opening bank accounts, boarding planes, or may not be able to do these things at all.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2013-05-17|title=24 Countries in Europe Require Sterilization of Trans People|url=https://tgeu.org/24-countries-in-europe-still-require-sterilization-from-trans-people/|access-date=2022-01-04|website=TGEU|language=en}}</ref> Disabled women in Europe are also common targets of forced sterilization. "'So many times, you hear it’s in the best interest of the woman,' said [[Catalina Devandas Aguilar]], a former [[United Nations]] special rapporteur for disability rights. 'But often, it’s because it’s more convenient for the family or the institution that takes care of them.'"<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Hurtes |first=Sarah |date=November 25, 2023 |title=Despite Bans, Disabled Women Are Still Being Sterilized in Europe |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/world/europe/europe-disabled-women-sterilization.html |access-date=April 3, 2024 |website=New York Times}}</ref>

On 1 February 2013, the [[United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment|United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture]] (SRT) issued a report on abusive practices in health care settings that has important implications for LGBT people and people with intersex conditions. In section 88, the SRT says States should:{{blockquote|repeal any law allowing intrusive and irreversible treatments, including forced genital-normalizing surgery, involuntary sterilization, unethical experimentation, medical display, "reparative therapies" or "conversion therapies", when enforced or administered without the free and informed consent of the person concerned. He also calls upon them to outlaw forced or coerced sterilization in all circumstances and provide special protection to individuals belonging to marginalized groups.<ref name="transequality.org">{{Cite news|date=2013-02-27|title=UN Report: Forced Sterilization of Trans People "is Torture"|url=https://transequality.org/blog/un-report-forced-sterilization-of-trans-people-is-torture|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926005628/http://www.transequality.org/blog/un-report-forced-sterilization-of-trans-people-is-torture|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 September 2015|access-date=2022-01-04|website=National Center for Transgender Equality|language=en}}</ref>}}

In May 2014, the [[World Health Organization]], [[OHCHR]], [[UN Women]], [[UNAIDS]], [[UNDP]], [[UNFPA]], and [[UNICEF]] issued a joint statement on "Eliminating forced, coercive, and otherwise involuntary sterilization". The report references the involuntary sterilization of a number of specific population groups.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} They include:

* Women, especially in relation to coercive population control policies, and particularly including women living with [[HIV]], indigenous and ethnic minority girls and women. Indigenous and ethnic minority women often face "wrongful stereotyping based on gender, race and ethnicity".
** In the United States the funding of mothers on welfare by HEW (Health, Education, and Welfare) covers roughly 90% of cost and doctors are likely to concur with the compulsory sterilization of mothers on welfare.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Dear Sisters|last1=Baxandall|first1=Rosalyn|last2=Gordon|first2=Linda|publisher=Basic Books|year=2000|isbn=978-0-465-01707-2|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dearsistersdispa0000unse/page/151 151–152]|url=https://archive.org/details/dearsistersdispa0000unse/page/151}}</ref> Threats to cease welfare occur when women are hesitant to consent.<ref name=":0" />
* [[Disabled people]], especially those with [[intellectual disability]]. Women with intellectual disabilities are "often treated as if they have no control, or should have no control, over their sexual and reproductive choices". Other rationales include menstrual management for "women who have or are perceived to have difficulties coping with or managing menses, or whose health conditions (such as epilepsy) or behaviour are negatively affected by menses." Men with intellectual disabilities are also sterilized, sometimes using the justification that it provides greater sexual freedom.<ref name="Barton-Hanson 2015 pp. 49–73">{{cite journal | last=Barton-Hanson | first=Renu | title=Sterilization of men with intellectual disabilities | journal=Medical Law International | publisher=Sage Publications | volume=15 | issue=1 | year=2015 | issn=0968-5332 | doi=10.1177/0968533215592444 | pages=49–73 | s2cid=146218981 | url=https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/17519/1/Sterilisation%20of%20men%20with%20intellectual%20disability%20EPRINT%20FINAL.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721015327/http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/17519/1/Sterilisation%20of%20men%20with%20intellectual%20disability%20EPRINT%20FINAL.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=21 July 2018 }}</ref>
* [[Intersex]] persons, who "are often subjected to cosmetic and other non-medically indicated surgeries performed on their reproductive organs, without their [[informed consent]] or that of their parents, and without taking into consideration the views of the children involved", often as a "sex-normalizing" treatment.
* [[Transgender]] persons, "as a prerequisite to receiving gender-affirmative treatment and gender-marker changes". This being a practice that the [[United Nations Special Rapporteur]] on [[United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment|torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment]] has described as a violation of the [[Yogyakarta Principles]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/Regularsession/Session22/A.HRC.22.53_English.pdf|title=Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (A/HRC/22/53)|at=para.&nbsp;78|publisher=Ohchr.org|access-date=2013-10-28|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160824161117/http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A.HRC.22.53_English.pdf|archive-date=2016-08-24}}</ref>

The report recommends a range of guiding principles for medical treatment, including ensuring patient autonomy in decision-making, and ensuring non-discrimination, accountability, and access to remedies.<ref name="who-2014">{{cite web |title=Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization |url=https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241507325 |publisher=World Health Organization |access-date=14 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711130919/http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/gender_rights/eliminating-forced-sterilization/en/ |archive-date=11 July 2015 |language=en| url-status = live}}</ref> Scholars have also emphasized the importance of including the voices and stories of those that have been affected.<ref>KLUCHIN, REBECCA M. “Locating the Voices of the Sterilized.” ''The Public Historian'' 29, no. 3 (January 1, 2007): 131–44. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2007.29.3.131</nowiki>.</ref>