Forced Sterlization of Native Women?

 

If passed, the resolution would make New Mexico the first state in the nation to formally acknowledge the reproductive abuse wrought on Native women by the federal government.

Jean Whitehorse's (Diné) Native name means "Many Children," but she only has one child. This spring, she spoke at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York to explain why.

In the 1970s, during an emergency visit to a Gallup, New Mexico, Indian Health Service facility, Whitehorse was coerced into signing consent papers for a procedure she later learned rendered her unable to have any more children.

READ:  https://nativenewsonline.net/health/stolen-generations-new-mexico-takes-historic-step-to-address-forced-sterilization-of-native-american-women 

Canadian Medical Association Apologizes for Harming First Nations People | HEALING STONE at Seneca

By Native News Online Staff |  September 20, 2024

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) apologized for its role and the role of the medical profession in past and ongoing harms to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples in the health system.

In presenting the apology at a ceremony held on Wednesday, Sept. 18, in Victoria on the ancestral lands of the lək̓ʷəŋiʔnəŋ-speaking people of Songhees and Xwsepsum Nations., CMA President Dr. Joss Reimer spoke of the organization's commitment to being accountable and working together with Indigenous Peoples to do better in the spirit of humility and reciprocity.

“We have not lived up to the ethical standards the medical profession is expected to uphold to ensure the highest standard of care is provided to patients and trust is fostered in physicians, residents and medical students,” she said. “We realize we have left Indigenous Peoples out of that high standard of care.”

The ceremony also included singers, drummers, dancers, musicians and storytellers.

Approximately 225 guests, including local and national Indigenous leaders, members of the CMA Indigenous Guiding Circle and Indigenous Survivors listened as CMA leadership outlined the organization’s path to an apology.

“Today, we turn the first page of a new chapter in the CMA’s history,” said Dr. Alika Lafontaine, CMA president (2022–23). “It's a chapter that we hope First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples can write with us together, as we work toward a health system that provides Indigenous Peoples with the right care, at the right time, in the right place, in a good way.”

That path included an in-depth review of more than 150 years of archives, which revealed the role the CMA, and the medical profession, have played in the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples, whether through action or inaction.  These harms include the devastating impacts of Indian hospitals, forced medical experimentation, forced sterilization, child apprehensions, systemic racism, neglect and abuse within the health care system.

The CMA’s first Indigenous president, Dr. Lafontaine announced the association’s commitment to an apology in June 2023, as an important part of the CMA’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action.  With the goal of creating meaningful change in health care and in the relationship between physicians and Indigenous Peoples, the CMA is hoping the apology inspires members of the profession and medical organizations to begin their own reconciliation journeys.

Building on past reconciliation work, the CMA’s ReconciliACTION Plan outlines how it will advance health and well-being for Indigenous Peoples, support the medical profession’s journey toward truth and reconciliation, and promote internal reconciliation as an organization.

SOURCE: https://nativenewsonline.net/health/canadian-medical-association-apologizes-for-harming-first-nations-people 

 

Seneca Iroquois (Alleghany) Museum: https://www.senecamuseum.org/

The Healing Stone will remain at the cultural center for two years before returning to New Zealand for the next World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference. Alongside the stone, the Seneca Nation received other gifts from previous conference hosts, which will also be displayed at the cultural center.

The Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center is open six days a week and offers exhibits, collections, and educational programs. To learn more visit their website.

LOCATION: Salamanca, New York 

ALSO READ: Healing Stone from World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference on Display at Seneca Museum

The forced sterilization in Indigenous women is genocide

Surgical interventions in the reproductive capacity of Indigenous women is a practice not yet confined to the past.

Paige France October 2, 2023

Trigger Warning – mention of genital mutilation

Taking away a person’s ability to reproduce without consent, or through coercion, is called forced or coerced sterilization. This process is often done through surgical interventions. According to the International Justice Resource Center (IJRC), forced sterilization in Canada “disproportionately, and possibly exclusively, targets women of ethnic minorities.” A heinous practice that is still not confined to the past—dating back decades and even into 2018—Indigenous women in Canada have been forcibly subjected to this torturous act of gender-based violence and discrimination. 

The breadth of the issue remains unknown, as there is a both a lack of publicly available data and a lack of in-depth investigation. Synonymous with the data for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that have yet to be properly and reliably documented, there is limited data concerning the sterilizations that have been conducted. However, since the 70s, at least 12,000 women have been affected by sterilization. 

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It was the mid-70s when Morningstar Mercredi was impregnated from a rape. She chose to keep the child, as her community condemned abortion, but later she slipped on ice and began spotting. Mercredi went to an emergency room where she was admitted. She was 14 when she woke up from surgery, only to discover her fetus had been removed. An incision spanned across the length of her lower pelvic region. She later learned that the surgery had also removed her left ovary and fallopian tube. 

This is just one of many similar stories.

Many Indigenous women were forced into sterilization because they were deemed “unfit” and not in the right circumstance to have a child by the standards of health care professionals. A parallelism to past events, like the Sixties Scoop—the removal of Indigenous children from their birthparents—this pattern of discrimination of ethnic minorities with different styles of living is entrenched in Canada’s history.

Alisa Lombard, a legal and policy matters lawyer from Maurice Law, the first Indigenous-owned and operated firm in Canada, represents many of these women. She stated in The Guardian that “[t]hese are people whose choices were taken away and they are choices based in fundamental human rights. The very intimate and personal decision to have children—or to not have children—belongs to the individual. It’s not something that can be influenced or coerced or forced.”

The IJRC is working with Lombard and other Indigenous rights lawyers who are engaged in litigation and advocacy to end the practice of forced sterilization of Indigenous women in Canada. Since November 2017, IJRC has partnered to secure multiple advocacy opportunities before bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations (UN) Committee against Torture.

This advocacy collaboration has resulted in numerous powerful statements from human rights organizations, the Canadian government’s final acknowledgement of its responsibility in the matter, and most significantly, increased public awareness and campaigning.

The issue of forced sterilizations will be raised at the United Nations’ Committee Against Torture. The United Nations (UN) sees this plainly as an act of genocide that should not be labeled as anything less, in accordance with Article II of the UN Genocide Convention, which prohibits “imposing measures intended to prevent birth within [a] group.”

As a non-status Cree Indigenous woman, I view this act of coercive sterilization upon Indigenous woman as a serious violation of human rights that sheds light onto the systemic discrimination and racism that Indigenous people face within the health care system. Issues like these disproportionately impact Indigenous women due to lifestyle differences and perceived inadequacies in rearing children to the post-colonization Canadian standards. These women were not in a position to make any permanent decisions regarding their reproductive organs and abilities, they were betrayed by the Canadian medical system, as these healthcare recommendations came from professionals. 

SOURCE: https://themedium.ca/the-forced-sterilization-in-indigenous-women-is-genocide/

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Truth and reconciliation: Inside 'Canada's' healthcare system - IndigiNews

IndigiNews

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created in 2008 to guide Canadians through the discoveries behind the residential “school” system.

Coerced and forced sterilization of Indigenous women and girls: This is what genocide looks like in Canada | The Star

 

Despite Canada’s benevolent veneer, its history is replete with examples of genocidal medical violence inflicted upon Indigenous communities, including children, with Canadian physicians often leading the charge. This includes coerced and forced sterilizations targeting Indigenous women and girls.

In her landmark book, “An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and the Sterilization of Aboriginal Women,” women and gender studies professor Karen Stote describes how formal eugenic legislation in provinces like Alberta and British Columbia spanned decades in the twentieth century, while other provinces had similar practices that may have been informal, but with the same devastating end-result: the sterilization of thousands of Indigenous women and girls, forced to give up the ability to bear children.

READ: Coerced and forced sterilization of Indigenous women and girls: This is what genocide looks like in Canada | The Star

Vice did a story a few years ago on forced sterilization w/out consent, and it's legal! https://t.co/i7eXQt8Rgh Lisa Lombard has mounted a Class Action. https://t.co/d4kSSU56IO

— LooksLike (@DomaLady) May 21, 2021

 

And on that other terror:

These are recent reports of missing children made to local law enforcement. If you think you have seen a missing child, contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). https://t.co/gzcU0ba9WK

— Tulsa World (@tulsaworld) May 21, 2021