New registry seeks to determine the national scope of forced sterilization of Indigenous people – Toronto Star
Nov. 1, 2024
Survivors Circle for Reproductive Justice hopes to of chronicle the history of First Nation, Inuit and Metis women and girls being forcefully sterilized and getting a better idea of how many people it affected.
A newly-formed group is launching a national registry of Indigenous Peoples who were forced or coerced into sterilization, and is encouraging survivors to come forward.
The group, called the Survivors Circle for Reproductive Justice, formed in Ottawa on Oct. 10 and officially launched the registry on Friday, in hopes of chronicling the history of First Nation, Inuit and Métis women and girls being forcefully sterilized and getting a better idea of how many people it affected.
Harmony Redsky, the group’s executive director, said it’s estimated that at least 15,000 Indigenous women and girls were pressured, coerced or forced to undergo tubal ligation since at least the 1890s, although better data is needed because many survivors have not told their story.
