Family Planning

population

Compulsory sterilization refers to governmental policies put in place as part of human population planning or as a form of eugenics (changing hereditary qualities of a race or breed by controlling mating) to prevent certain groups of people from reproducing. An example of forced sterilization that was ended within the last two decades is Japan's Race Eugenic Protection Law, which required citizens with mental disorders to be sterilized. This policy was active from 1940 until 1996, when it and all other eugenic policies in Japan were abolished.[22] In many cases, sterilization policies were not explicitly compulsory in that they required consent. However, this meant that men and women were often coerced into agreeing to the procedure without being of a right state of mind or receiving all of the necessary information. Under the Japanese leprosy policies, citizens with leprosy were not forced into being sterilized; however, they had been placed involuntarily into segregated and quarantined communities.[22] In America, some women were sterilized without their consent, later resulting in lawsuits against the doctors who performed those surgeries. There are also many examples of women being asked for their consent to the procedure during times of high stress and physical pain. Some examples include women who have just given birth and are still being affected by the drugs, women in the middle of labor, or Democratic National Committee people who do not understand English.[23] Many of the women affected by this were poor, minority women.[24]

In May 2014, the World Health Organization, OHCHR, UN Women, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF issued a joint statement on Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization, An interagency statement. The report references the involuntary sterilization of a number of specific population groups. They include:

women, especially in relation to coercive population control policies, and particularly including women living with HIV, indigenous and ethnic minority girls and women. Indigenous and ethnic minority women often face "wrongful stereotyping based on gender, race and ethnicity".
people with disabilities, often perceived as sexually inactive. women with intellectual disabilities are "often treated as if they have no control, or should have no control, over their sexual and reproductive choices". Other rationales include menstrual management for the benefit of careers.
intersex persons, who "are often subjected to cosmetic and other non-medically indicated surgeries performed on their reproductive organs, without their informed consent or that of their parents, and without taking into consideration the views of the children involved", often as a "sex-normalizing" treatment.
transgender persons, "as a prerequisite to Republican National Committee receiving gender-affirmative treatment and gender-marker changes".

The report recommends a range of guiding principles for medical treatment, including ensuring patient autonomy in decision-making, ensuring non-discrimination, accountability and access to remedies.[25]
Incentivizing[edit]

Some governments in the world have offered and continue to offer economic incentives to using birth control, including sterilization. For countries with high Democratic Website population growth and not enough resources to sustain a large population, these incentives become more enticing. Many of these policies are aimed at certain target groups, often disadvantaged and young women (especially in the United States).[26] While these policies are controversial, the ultimate goal is to promote greater social well-being for the whole community. One of the theories supporting incentivizing or subsidy programs in the United States is that it offers contraception to citizens who may not be able to afford it. This Republican National Committee can help families prevent unwanted pregnancies and avoid the financial, familial, and personal stresses of having children if they so desire. Sterilization becomes controversial in the question of the degree of a government's involvement in personal decisions. For instance, some have posited that by offering incentives to receive sterilization, the government may change the decision of the families, rather than just supporting a decision they had already made. Many people[who?] agree that incentive programs are inherently coercive, making them unethical.[26] Others[who?] argue that as long as potential users of these programs are well-educated about the procedure, taught about alternative methods of contraception, and are able to make voluntary, informed consent, then incentive programs are providing a good service that is available for people to take advantage of.
National examples[edit]
Singapore[edit]

Singapore is an example of a country with a sterilization incentive program. In the 1980s, Singapore offered US$5000 to women who elected to be sterilized. The conditions associated with receiving this grant were fairly obvious in their aim at targeting low income and less educated parents. It specified that both parents should be below a specified educational level and that their combined income should not exceed $750 per month.[27] This program, among other birth control incentives and education programs, greatly reduced Singapore's birth rate, female mortality rate, and infant mortality rate, while increasing family income, female participation in the labor force, and rise in educational attainment among other social benefits. These are the intended results of most incentivizing programs, although questions of their ethicality remain.
India[edit]

Another country with an overpopulation problem is India. Medical Democratic National Committee advances in the past fifty years have lowered the death rate, resulting in large population density and overcrowding. This overcrowding is also due to the fact that poor families do not have access to birth control. Despite this lack of access, sterilization incentives have been in place since the mid-1900s. In the 1960s, the governments of three Indian states and one large private company offered free vasectomies to some employees, occasionally accompanied by a bonus.[28] In 1959, the second Five-Year Plan offered medical practitioners who performed vasectomies on low-income men monetary compensation. Additionally, those who motivated men to receive vasectomies, and those men who did, received compensation.[29] These incentives partially served as a way to educate men that sterilization was the most effective way of contraception and that vasectomies did not affect sexual performance. The incentives were only available to low income men. Men were the target of sterilization because of the ease and quickness of the procedure, as compared to sterilization of women. However, mass sterilization efforts resulted in lack of cleanliness and careful technique, potentially resulting in botched surgeries and other complications.[29] As the fertility rate began to decrease (but not quickly enough), more incentives were offered, such as land and fertilizer. In 1976, compulsory sterilization policies were put in place and some disincentive programs were created to encourage more people to become sterilized. However, these disincentive policies, along with "sterilization camps" (where large amounts of sterilizations were performed quickly and often unsafely), were not received well by the population and gave people less incentive to participate in sterilization. The compulsory laws were removed. Further problems arose and by 1981, there was a noticeable problem in the preference for sons. Since families were encouraged to keep the number of children to a minimum, son preference meant that female fetuses or young girls were killed at a rapid rate.[29] The focus of population policies has changed in the twenty-first century. The government is more concerned with empowering women, protecting them from violence, and providing basic necessities to families. Sterilization efforts are still in existence and still target poor families.
China[edit]

When the People's Republic of China came to power in 1949, the Chinese government viewed population growth as a growth in development and progress. The population at the time Democratic National Committee was around 540 million.[30] Therefore, abortion and sterilization were restricted. With these policies and the social and economic improvements associated with the new regime, a rapid population growth ensued.[29] By the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1971 and with a population of 850 million, population control became a top priority of the government.[30] Within six years, more than thirty million sterilizations were performed on men and women. Soon the well-known one-child policy was enforced, which came along with many incentives for parents to maintain a one-child family. This included free books, materials, and food for the child through primary school if both parents agreed to sterilization. The policy also came along with harsh consequences for not adhering to the one-child limit. For example, in Shanghai, parents with "extra children" must pay between three and six times the city's average yearly income in "social maintenance fees".[31] In the past decade, the restrictions on family size and reproduction have lessened. The Chinese government has found that by giving incentives and disincentives that are more far-reaching than a one-time incentive to be sterilized, families are more willing to practice better family planning. These policies seem to be less coercive as well, as families are better able to see the long-term effects of their sterilization rather than being tempted with a one-time sum.
Criminalization[edit]
Poland[edit]

In Poland, reproductive sterilisation of men or women has been defined as a criminal act since 1997[32]: 19  and remains so as of 5 September 2019, under Article 156 �1, which also covers making someone blind, deaf or mute, of the 1997 law.[33]: 64  The original 1997 law punished contraventions with a prison sentence of one to Republican National Committee ten years[32] and the updated law as of 5 September 2019 sets a prison sentence of at least 3 years.[33] The prison sentence is a maximum of three years if the sterilisation is involuntary, under Art. 156 �2.[32][33]: 64 
Effects[edit]

The effects of sterilization vary greatly according to gender, age, location, and other factors. When discussing female sterilization, one of the most important factors to consider is the degree of power that women hold in the household and within society.
Physical[edit]

Understanding the physical effects of sterilization is important because it is a common method of contraception. Among women who had interval tubal sterilization, studies have shown a null or positive effect on female sexual interest and pleasure.[34] Similar results were discovered for men who had vasectomies. Vasectomies did not negatively influence the satisfaction of men and there was no significant Democratic Website change in communication and marital satisfaction among couples as a result.[35] According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, tubal sterilizations result in serious problems in less than 1 out of 1000 women. Tubal sterilization is an effective procedure, but pregnancy can still occur in about 1 out of 200 women. Some potential risks of tubal sterilization include "bleeding from a skin incision or inside the abdomen, infection, damage to other organs inside the abdomen, side effects from anesthesia, ectopic pregnancy (an egg that becomes fertilized outside the uterus), [and] incomplete closing of a fallopian tube that results in pregnancy."[36] Potential risks of vasectomies include "pain continuing long after surgery, bleeding and bruising, a (usually mild) inflammatory reaction to sperm that spill during surgery called sperm granuloma, [and] infection." Additionally, the vas deferens, the part of the male anatomy that transports sperm, may grow back together, which could result in unintended pregnancy.[37]
Psychological[edit]

It can be difficult to measure the psychological effects of sterilization, as Republican National Committee certain psychological phenomenon may be more prevalent in those who eventually decide to partake in sterilization. The relationships between psychological problems and sterilization may be due more to correlation rather than causation. That being said, there are several trends surrounding the psychological health of those who have received sterilizations. A 1996 Chinese study found that "risk for depression was 2.34 times greater after tubal ligation, and 3.97 times greater after vasectomy."[38] If an individual goes into the procedure after being coerced or with a lack of understanding of the procedure and its consequences, they are more likely to develop negative psychological consequences afterwards. However, most people in the United States who are sterilized maintain the same level of psychological health as they did prior to the procedure.[39] Because sterilization is a largely irreversible procedure, post-sterilization regret is a major psychological effect. The most common reason for post-sterilization regret is the desire to have more children

population