International human rights law protects the rights of women to have access to voluntary sterilization services free of coercion, discrimination, and violence. In April 2004, the Center prepared a legal memorandum on the illegality of coercive sterilization under international human rights law, and an analysis of possible remedial measures to address such abuses using comparative […]
The Center brought this case on behalf of ten women targeted by a “Search and Arrest” policy initiated in 1989 by the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and local law enforcement officials. Under the policy, MUSC medical personnel secretly searched a targeted group of pregnant women for evidence of cocaine use so that police […]
While undergoing surgery in connection with a miscarriage in a public hospital in Hungary, A.S., a Hungarian woman of Roma origin, was asked to sign a statement of consent to a caesarean section. The statement contained a barely legible note using the Latin word for sterilization. Only after she was sterilized did A.S. discover that […]
Policy Changes Come After Coerced Sterilization Case that Ended in Death Yesterday, the government of Peru signed an agreement before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that should bring about sweeping changes in Peru’s reproductive health policies, and improve women’s access to family planning and reproductive healthcare. In a landmark settlement involving the case […]
Appointing a guardian for a fetus would violate a woman’s right not only to decide whether to continue her pregnancy, but also to choose medical care to protect her own health during pregnancy, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Florida NOW argued before the court of appeal today in a […]
Peru Admits Responsibility for its Forced Sterilization Policies (Updated 3.18.21) In the first case on reproductive rights admitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Peru admitted responsibility for the forced sterilization of María Mamérita Mestanza, and her death following inadequate care. It agreed to implement recommendations made by Peru’s Human Rights Ombudsman concerning forced sterilization of women, particularly in marginalized and Indigenous communities. Peru […]