What is Eugenics? 

Eugenics is a belief system with practices meant to control a person’s choice to have and raise children for the purpose of “improving” the human race. It proposes the idea that people with genetic traits deemed undesirable should not be able to reproduce.

What does Eugenics have to do with Reproductive Coercion? 

The movement to make birth control legal and accessible began in the 1920s as a way to enforce eugenics and make sure certain populations would not have children. Birth control campaigns were concentrated within racialized, low income, and Disabled groups to discourage reproduction. Eugenics uses medical racism to justify Reproductive Coercion or the use of birth control and forced sterilization to control the reproductive decisions of these groups.

What is forced sterilization? 

Forced or coerced sterilization involves the surgical removal of a person’s ability to reproduce via hysterectomy (a permanent form of birth control which removes all or part of the uterus) or tubal ligation (a permanent form of birth control which severs or ties the fallopian tubes) without their full consent or by using pressure and/or threats against a patient (e.g as a precondition to be able to see their newborn children). Coerced sterilization can also be done using non-permanent methods of contraception for example, research indicates that Depo-Provera or the birth control shot, is prescribed disproportionately to Disabled people and Indigenous youth without their full and informed consent. Practitioners have also been recorded to administer Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) methods such as IUDs without making sure patients are aware of how the device works, how long that it lasts, and how they go about removing it, particularly if they live in more rural or remote areas. Sterilization is also common in Canadian correctional facilities and often compounded by other methods of state violence. 

In Canada, the Sexual Sterilization Acts in British Columbia and Alberta legally permitted forcible sterilization. Although the Sterilization Acts were repealed in the 1970s, forced and coerced sterilization and reproductive coercion perpetuated by service providers continues today and disproportionately affects Indigenous communities, Disabled  people and youth. This strengthens the existing distrust of the healthcare system among marginalized populations and discourages people from seeking the care and medical support they need. 

Why does it matter? Settler responsibility

As providers working in Canada, we occupy stolen Indigenous land and operate in a settler colonial context. Although not all of us are settlers, we know that those with power must take accountability for the impacts of these practices as a threat to public health and advocate for the reproductive agency of all people. 

Doing so not only requires an acknowledgement of both historical and ongoing colonial violence within the healthcare and social service sectors, but also of our own biases, privileges, and racist ways of thinking that can show up in our provision of care. PPO is committed to ensuring all sexual and reproductive health decisions are made with informed consent and free from reproductive coercion.