Sometimes they were performed in exchange for basic necessities like food. After international public outcry exploded earlier this year, a public investigator presented a report on the program replete with testimonies of blackmail, deceit, and poor sanitation. Some women were sterilized without knowing it during cesarean sections. For women's organizations, cases like this are simply more evidence of poorly planned reproductive health policy in Peru. They claim President Alberto Fujimori's government has focused exclusively on family planning programs and on lowering infant mortality rates, and ignored an integrated reproductive health approach.
Family planning is only one basic aspect.
It is equally important to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and cope with unwanted pregnancy, infections, and infertility. We must also consider adolescent sexuality, infant survival and maternity without risk. He promised that things would change soon, but refused to disclose the details. Earlier this summer, Health Minister Marino Costa Bauer admitted to the press in Lima that maternal mortality in Peru is excessively high. But a series of subsequent health announcements focused on denying that the state promotes any particular type of contraceptive or has any official sterilization targets.