Essay Sample on Female Sterilization: The Most Used Method of Family Planning

Introduction

Over the past decade, female sterilization has become the most used method of family planning in the world. This increased use has been witnessed in both developing and developed countries; especially in the United States, Latin Americans and Asian countries. Female Sterilization is a contraceptive method in which the eggs are prevented from reaching the sperm by permanently blocking the fallopian tubes hence preventing fertilization. This contraceptive method permanently prevents pregnancy. In present-day America, sterilization is considered as a drastic but a very safe contraceptive method. Puerto Rico Island has had the world's highest occurrence of sterilization for twenty years (Gonzalez & Boyle, 2014, p56). This practice began in the early 1930s at a very reputable hospital in San Juan. The physicians at the hospital vastly encouraged the practice among women of high parity who had difficulty in controlling their fertility (Gonzalez & Boyle, 2014, p112). Although the prevalence of sterilization had risen drastically among Puerto Rican women, it did not bring about a decline in their fertility. Most of the women who practiced sterilization, only practiced after they had several children. Therefore, this paper addresses the issues regarding sterilized woman in Puerto Rico

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Several factors influence a couple's decision to end childbearing by use of sterilization in Puerto Rico such as societal norms, user's characteristics, family planning policies, the sex of the living children, fear of child mortality, pressure from the other partner or family to have more children. Many religions also restrict or prohibit sterilization but its followers use it. Catholicism prohibits the use of sterilization as a contraceptive, but in Puerto Rico the practice has been overwhelmingly used despite the restriction (Gonzalez & Boyle, 2014). Research indicates that the use of sterilization in Puerto Rico is common among high parity couples. For example, women who were sterilized averaged 4-5 children. In addition, the use of sterilization in Puerto Rico was recorded to be high in families who had a son and a daughter.

It is estimated that approximately 35% of the female populations were sterilized between the 1930s and the 1970s in Puerto Rico, making this, the highest rate of sterilization in the world (Gonzalez & Boyle, 2014, p181). In spite of the high rate of sterilization in Puerto Rico, the history behind these operations remains unknown to date. Some people claim the reason for the increased sterilization processes was to tackle the issue of overpopulation on the island. The government argued that overpopulation was the main cause of the high levels of unemployment and poverty experienced in the country. In 1937, contraception was legalized on the island. Besides, the Puerto Rican government passed a law that allowed sterilization processes to be done at the discretion of the eugenics laws in the same year. Immediately after these laws were legalized, health officials from a program endorsed by the U.S government were sent to the rural areas of the island to advocate for sterilization. The program was a success. By 1946, post-delivery sterilization was frequently done in various Puerto Rican clinics. However, through research was done after one year of the program, a quarter of the women who were sterilized regretted the choice to be sterilized (Gonzalez & Boyle, 2014, p192). The law received a lot of backlash from the Catholics and the nationalists in the 1950s. In 1960 the laws advocating for sterilization were repealed.

Sterilization is an example of the United States advanced absolute power over Puerto Rican island. Since U.S intrusion to the island in 1898, overpopulation was seen as the islands major problem. During the pinnacles of the eugenics law, at the beginning of the 20th century, scientists talked of Puerto Rican hyper fertility and their inability to use less permanent forms of birth control due to lack of intelligence. A clear reason as to why the U.S government financed and encouraged the sterilization campaign is not well known. What is evident is that the campaign made Puerto Rico sterilization incidence to be the highest in the world during the twentieth century.

The sterilization procedure became so common in the island in the 1950s to a point it was merely known as "la operacion.". The 1982 documentary exposes a controversial history of usage of sterilization for birth control in the island and the part it played in the economic and political growth of the country. The United States and Puerto Rico government had a plan to make the island economically successful and modern than it was before. Fixated on the idea that the island was overpopulated, the two governments came up with a twofold faceted plan to improve the nation's success. The first section of the plan was to encourage Puerto Ricans relocation to various cities in the U.S including New York in the 1940s-1960s. The second part involved the promotion of sterilization as the best mode of birth control among all women. Besides, the plan also imposed a limit on the number of children per family. Puerto Rican women were also highly encouraged to join the textile and needlework industries at the same time. Since sterilization efforts were so prevalent at that time, USAID ensured that family planning clinics were readily available in these factories. This program was so rampant that it was assimilated into the industries that the women worked. The women, who took part in the program, ended up being guinea pigs for pharmaceuticals companies in the U.S. through the program, these pharmaceuticals were able to develop the modern family planning pills used today.

Latin Americans in Puerto Rico were not the only ones targeted in regards to population control. In California, there were several cases of forced sterilization. MasBebes film in the 1960s and 1970s in Los Angeles told cases of women sterilized while giving birth, women mostly of Mexican American descent (Lira & Stern, 2014, p199). There was also a federal lawsuit in which many women did not give their consent to being sterilized. Some of them were even told that the procedure was reversible. Women like Georgina Hernandez explained how they were persuaded into agreeing to have the procedure after they were ridiculed by the nurses and doctors at the hospital for being poor and still having children (Lira & Stern, 2014, p201). As the cases emerged, questions emerged whether the sterilized women were coerced into being coerced. In 1978, at the end of the Mexican American women trials, the judged ruled that neither of the charges presented was true. The judge cited misunderstandings since those women predominantly Spanish speakers. Another grounds for the judge's decision was that, until 1974, voluntary educated consent was not lawfully required (Lira & Stern, 2014). Also, during the procedures, no law required for the women while in labor to give consent to irreversible procedures.

Conclusion

In summary, for over a century, population control has been a driving force in U.S government policy. Forced sterilization in Puerto Rico history is one of the egregious examples of coercive population control measures employed by the United States government. Unfortunately, the poorly educated and less fortunate women continue to be deprived of their reproductive freedoms available and entitled to all other women.

References

Gonzalez-Delgado, C., & Boyle, D. (2014). For The Greater Good: Eugenics and Experiments on The Female Population in Puerto Rico. History, Memory and Media. 39(2), 9-34.

Lira, N., & Stern, A. M. (2014). Mexican Americans and Eugenic Sterilization: Resisting Reproductive Injustice in California, 1920-1950. Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, 39(2), 9-34.