The Australian government has agreed to open an inquiry into the forced sterilizations of people with disabilities, which took place as recently as 2021.
The Guardian reported that numerous organizations, like the Victorian Women’s Health Services Network, have lined up to give evidence. It claimed that women with disabilities were “refused the right to consent to medical treatment including abortion, and are more likely to experience reproductive coercion than women without disabilities.” Women’s Health in the South East likewise said that women with disabilities were forced into sterilization as a way to prevent pregnancy, which it rightly called a human rights violation, and said it “constitutes torture.”
Carolyn Frohmader, executive director of Women with Disabilities Australia, said there have been “multiple and extreme” violations of rights, due to discrimination and ableism.
“[Everyone should have the right to] be free from anyone else making personal decisions about sexuality and reproductive matters, and to access sexual and reproductive health information, education, services and support,” she told the Guardian. “These egregious forms of reproductive violence have no place in a civilised world, and yet remain lawful in this country … [Australia is] a wealthy country that still allows practices such as forced sterilisation, forced abortion, forced contraception and menstrual suppression. This is nothing short of shameful.”
The Australian Guardianship and Administration Council reported nine forced sterilizations in 2020-21, while Frohmader said even more women were placed on long-active reversible contraceptives (LARC), for years longer than they should have been, which has led to medical complications, such as osteoporosis.
This is a long-running issue, and the United Nations (UN) has previously condemned these actions in Australia as a human rights violation. In a previous investigation for the UN, Frohmader told of a woman who had been sterilized at the age of seven, simply because of a vision impairment. Most women who are victims of this scheme, however, typically have intellectual disabilities. And in the past, Frohmader said the government has been less than forthcoming about how widespread the issue is.
“It is very difficult to get accurate data on because it depends on which state and territory it’s in, some have different requirements, some go through guardianship boards, last year there was a sterilisation performed on a young girl with a disability in South Australia but [the state] refused to give me any information,” she previously testified to the UN. “We still allow it to occur, we haven’t got any legislation that prohibits it, it can depend on a family court or guardianship tribunals but trying to get access to information is impossible.”
