Sterilization of Native American women

**Sterilization of Native American women** happened throughout the 1960s and 1970s. (*Sterile* here means *unable to have children;* *sterilization* means *making a person unable to have children forever.*) During this time, many Native American women were given cutting to make health better or drugs to make it impossible to have children.

The Indian Health Service (IHS) and the doctors working with them often made women unable to have children forever.  

Native American women were told various lies to trick them into being made unable to have children forever. Sometimes they were told that cutting them to make them unable to have children forever could be undone. Sometimes they were not told all the things they needed in order to say "yes" while knowing all they needed to know. Sometimes they were told nothing at all. In other cases, Native American women were told they would lose their healthcare or welfare if they did not get health workers to make them unable to have children forever.

In some of these cases, girls as young as 11 were made unable to have children forever. Normally and often, doctors told Native American women they should be made unable to have children forever, but did not do the same with wealthier white women.

## Numbers 
Indian Health Service (IHS) areas had rules about letting people choose whether to become unable to have children forever. In a 1976 study, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that four Indian Health Service areas did not follow these rules. In many cases, doctors were using forms that did not ask what the women had been told and whether they had the information they needed.

In these four IHS areas, between 1973-1976, doctors made 3,406 women unable to have children. 36 of those women were under the age of 21, even though the IHS had been told not to do this.

People found they needed to know more. The IHS had only studied and counted the number of times Native American women were made unable to have children forever for four out of twelve IHS areas. 

It is hard to know how many Native American women were made unable to have children forever. The GAO suggests the smallest possible number. Other tries at the right number say that between 1970-1976, the IHS made 25-50% of Native American women unable to have children. In that same time span, the highest number anybody thought was possible said that up to 70,000 women may have been made unable to have children forever. Meanwhile, about 15% of white women were made unable to have children during the 1970-1976 time period.

The number of Native American women who have been made unable to have children forever is surprisingly high when you remember that Native American women are less likely to have health insurance. That means a lot of money is being given to pay for making Native American women unable to have children forever.

## Ways of making Native American women unable to have children forever 
These are '***. In Simple English that means: This section is about **ways of making Native American women unable to have children forever*'.

### Cutting for health 
There were two major surgical techniques for sterilizing women. That means there were 2 most used ways for health workers to cut women to make them unable to have children. The first involved cutting out the womb (the uterus). The second technique involved tying, blocking, or cutting the fallopian tubes.

The first way was more dangerous, and had a higher risk that things might go wrong. Women were not asked how (or whether) they wanted to be sterilized; doctors made that choice for them.

After finding out that they had been made unable to have children forever, some women asked their doctors to give them someone else's womb. 

### Drugs for health 
Sometimes, ways of making women unable to have children only for a short time were used. These are drugs that make it impossible to have children - but only while a woman is taking those medications. They are only for women.

One medication like this was Norplant. It involved pills with chemicals in them being stuck under a woman's skin. Norplant has many things that may happen other than what the drug was meant to do, including irregular or heavy menstrual bleeding; headaches; nausea; and depression. Later, a group of people sued Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (Norplant's maker). They argued that Wyeth did not tell people enough about the drug's possible side effects. This medication is no longer used in the United States.

Depo-Provera was another drug to make women unable to have children for a short time that doctors used on Native American women. It is given as a shot (an injection) every three months. Before the FDA said Depo-Provera was safe to use in 1992, doctors were already using it on Native American women with intellectual disabilities. 

Today, the Indian Health Service still makes women unable to have children forever to change the number or timing of children. However, binding the fallopian tubes and cutting men's tubes are the only things that may be done if the real reason is to make someone unable to have children forever. Today the law says the IHS must get the woman to: say yes to doing this, be 21 years of age or older, and not be involuntary commitment in a correctional or a mental health facility building.

## The past of making people in the United States unable to have children against their will 
Native American women were not the only people to be made unable to have children against their will. Women of African ancestry were also made unable to have children against their will. Poor women were also made unable to have children against their will. The groups who wanted to do this got more and more people, and in 1907, Indiana was America's first state to make a law making people unable to have children against their will.

## The Indian Health Services 
After Congress raised the pay for Indian Health Services (IHS) doctors two things happened: the things the doctors did were safer; and the doctors began to do things to make women not have children. Doctors doing things to make women not have children led to them making people unable to have children forever.

## Reasons for making people unable to have children forever
 (HEW) to tell Native American women it would be better to have fewer children. The left shows how the mother and father would be before and after doing the things HEW told them to do. The things HEW told them to do were things to make Native American women have fewer children. This paper shows mothers and fathers are tired and with little money before they do the things HEW told them to do. This paper shows mothers and fathers are happy and wealthy after they do the things HEW told them to do. ]]
Native American women were not the only people to be treated to making people unable to have children forever against their will. Black and poor women were also made unable to have children forever against their will. In the 1970s, Native American people got things they needed from parts of the government like the IHS, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Wong *et al.,* 2011 find that sterilization of Native American women has made Native American women have less cancer.

Cackler *et al.,* 2016 is a finding of many mental illnesses among Native American women. Cackler *et al.,* 2016 is a finding that mental illnesses and being made unable to have children forever often go together among Native American women. Cackler *et al.,* 2016 find that health workers should think about Native American women being made unable to have children forever when talking to Native American women about mental health. Cackler *et al.,* 2016 find that health workers should think about Native American women's mental health when talking to Native American women about Native American women being made unable to have children forever.

### Paternalism 
Most of the doctors making these women unable to have children forever saw this as the best choice for these women. They claimed it would leave these women with more money and their family's with a better life. Many of these doctors believed that Native American women were not smart enough to use other ways of not having children. Thus, making these women unable to have children forever was seen as the way of not having more children most likely to keep working. When doctors were asked on what they say to people they talked to away from other people, only 6% said it was better to make people unable to have children forever, while 14% would say it to those on welfare. When they were asked about their thinking about government rules about ways to not have children, 94% said they would be happy about making a mother unable to have children forever against her will if she is on welfare with three or more children. The most new IHS doctors made $17,000 to $20,000 a year and worked around 60 hours per week. In 1974 the number of doctors to number of people they must help was dangerously low, with only one doctor to 1,700 people in the areas they worked. Between 1971 and 1974 doctors asking to work in an empty IHS job went from 700 to 100, meaning that the burden of more work fell on an ever falling number of doctors. IHS doctors had mostly Protestant and middle-class ideas about choosing when and how many children to have, caring more about a nuclear family with a small number of children.

### Distrust 
Native American women and men do not fully trust the U.S. government due to being made unable to have children forever against their will, and are still not sure about new ways to not have children.

## Related pages
*Abortion in the United States
*Compulsory sterilization#United States

## References
## Works cited
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