Indigenous women ‘powerless’ to stop sterilizations: review
The Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) is apologizing to Indigenous women as an external review reveals doctors, nurses and social workers coerced several mothers into getting their tubes tied after giving birth.
The review was set in motion after stories started surfacing in 2015. One woman, Sylvia Tuckanow, went public in January 2017 with her account of having a tubal ligation procedure at Royal University Hospital.
The 56-page review from Manitoba-based Métis doctors Yvonne Boyer and Judith Bartlett was released Thursday. It detailed interviews with seven Indigenous women who felt they were pressured or coerced into tubal ligations when they gave birth at a Saskatoon hospital.
The report stated the women felt “invisible, profiled and powerless” while interacting with health care workers immediately before, during and after delivery of a child.