Forced sterilization alleged

Bratislava, Slovakia

Doctors in Slovakia are forcibly sterilizing Romany women to reduce the population of the people once called Gypsies, an international advocacy group said. At least 110 Romany women have told investigators for the Center for Reproductive Rights that doctors in Slovakia tied their tubes during Caesarean sections and informed them later. The Roma, a dark-skinned ethnic minority, face discrimination across Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe, where their numbers are greater. During the Nazi and communist eras, governments often sterilized Romany women in an attempt to keep the population down. “But this is happening in Europe in 2003,” Christina Zampas of the Center for Reproductive Rights told the London Independent. “It’s appalling.”

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