In this Oct. 1, 2013 photo, Ashaninka Indian girls eat a breakfast of fish soup made with yuca and sweet potatoes in Kitamaronkani, Pichari district, Peru. AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd. All rights reserved.
"A nurse put me on a stretcher and tied my hands and feet," said Sabina Huillca. "I asked them to bring me my little baby girl but instead they anesthetized me. When I woke up, the doctor was stitching my stomach. I started screaming, I knew I had been sterilized."
In Peru, during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori, 272,000 women and 22,004 men were sterilized between 1996 and 2000 as part of the National Reproductive Health and Family Planning Program. Most of the men and women were indigenous, poor, and living in rural areas. The program's alleged aim was to eradicate poverty through lower birth rates, but evidence has emerged over the years that it was coercive and blatantly violated reproductive rights.
