Women of Forced Sterilization Seek Justice

     The women of Peru are seeking justice against government and health officials who performed forced sterilization on them in an attempt to reduce the country's birth rate. The sterilization was a birth control program put in place by the Alberto Fujimori government, which saw the sterilization of 346,219 women and 24,535 men during the final years of his presidential mandate (1990-2000). The initiative was justified by officials who claimed that it lowered the number of mouths to feed which would help lift families out of poverty. BBC journalist Mattia Cabitza writes that while the former president is in prison his convictions relate to Peru's internal conflict, not his birth control campaign. (Full article available here)