Decades After Forced Sterilization, Native American Women in the US Still Face Rejection and Retraumatization in Healthcare

Copyright
2019

This story discusses how the American Indian Movement (AIM) first discovered evidence of ongoing involuntary sterilization of Native American women in records they removed after occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1972. Across the entire country, an estimated 25 percent of Native women of childbearing age were sterilized by 1976. It explains that, given the compounding historical trauma and racism that Natives experience, many Indigenous people who seek treatment today wonder if they’ll find rejection or further retraumatization.

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Collage of images of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color with teal, olive green, golden yellow, and burnt orange transparent overlays. Bold white text on charcoal background at the top reads
BIPOC Health Equity Library
Library
Published on 09/27/2022
Photo of an Indigenous person holding a drum. Behind them is a scene of a lake and forested mountains.
Indigenous Knowledge Library
Library
Published on 08/04/2022

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