Ethiopian Women Claim Israel Forced Them To Accept Birth Control Shots

[Wetcoaster]

Except that probably didn't happen.

The women voluntarily entered a family planning program. What's being alleged is that they were lied to about the consequences of depo and alternative treatment. The attendents are alleged to have made racist assumptions that the Ethiopian women would not be responsible enough to take alternative birth control, such as pills, that requires daily use.

There are 35 women alleging that their understanding was that they required these shots to enter Israel. Considering that 130,000 Ethiopans live in Israel, that's a very small number to have, if what you are saying was official government policy. Especially when you take into account the language barrier.

There is zero evidence to support your claim that it was a condition for immigration for these women to have the depo shots. At worst we have racist and paternalistic policies combined with racist individuals on the front lines.

[sam13371337]

No I didn't justify forced sterilization anywhere. You need to re read my previous posts (only 3 altogether) to find you are wrong in your accusations on this and on racism.

On the contrary I believe we should not divide land into countries based on race, religion or any other reason. We should all live on Planet Earth as one people under one law and one govt. Free to live and work and raise our families where ever we like.

I do believe that our planet is over populated and the situation is getting worse. Sterilization is the best, fastest and most cost effective way to manage this problem.

[WHL rocks]

you dont get it.

your comments are there for all to see and judge for themselves i guess. Let's leave it at that.

[taxi]

Actually there is evidence as set out in a number of reports and statements from Ethopian women.

[Bertuzzi Babe]

I have no problem with this policy. The world is over populated. Governments should exponentially increase the use of this drug all over the world, particularly in Africa and Asia.

Out of curiosity I've looked into these types of birth control measures in the past. There is nothing publicly known that lasts more than a few months. Only if there was a drug that would last several years.

[Wetcoaster]

....35 out of a population of 130,000. It also doesn't state that was explicitely stated to them. It states that what they "understood". The much more likely explanation is that you just had lazy and racist front line workers. There is zero evidence to suggest sterilization was a government policy of any kind.

[Super19]

Yeah. And I'd add that doing it to the case of an Ethiopian women for her best interest is no exception to the rule. That's the part where you wonder if this was racist.

[taxi]

You said there was no evidence, that was an inaccurate statement. And the problem seems much more widespread than you acknowledge and even the Israeli Health Ministry issued a warning to cease the practise.

[Amish Rake Fighter]

Women's groups were alerted to the widespread use of Depo Provera in the Ethiopian community in 2008 when Rachel Mangoli, who runs a day care centre for 120 Ethiopian children in Bnei Braq, a suburb of Tel Aviv, observed that she had received only one new child in the previous three years. "I started to think about how strange the situation was after I had to send back donated baby clothes because there was no one in the community to give them to," she said.

She approached a local health clinic serving the 55 Ethiopian families in Bnei Braq and was told by the clinic manager that they had been instructed to administer Depo Provera injections to the women of child-bearing age, though he refused to say who had issued the order. Ms Mangoli, who interviewed the women, said: "They had not been told about alternative forms of contraception or about the side effects or given medical follow-ups." The women complained of a wide range of side effects associated with the drug, including headaches, abdominal pain, fatigue, nausea, loss of libido and general burning sensations.

Depo Provera is also known to decrease bone density, especially among dark-skinned women, which can lead to osteoporosis in later life. Doctors are concerned that it is difficult or impossible to help women who experience severe side effects because the drug is in their system for months after it is injected. The contraceptive's reputation has also been tarnished by its association with South Africa, where the apartheid government had used it, often coercively, to limit the fertility of black women.

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[Wetcoaster]

There is no evidence. 35 people out of 130,000 misunderstanding or being given wrong direction is not evidence of government policy in any way. Especially when you are dealing with mass processing of people who speak a different language. Anyone who's ever dealt with a similar situation knows how quickly front line workers become jaded and begin to generalize, and how frustrating it is dealing with language and cultural barriers.

Also your reference to the holocaust in your OP is pretty deplorable. Firstly, most Israelis are not decended from people who were victims of the holocaust. Most are refugees from arab countries. Secondly, Israelis should not be held to some magical standard, because the holocaust happened. Israeli society, like all societies, is going to have some degree of racism in it.

What we have here is the following:

1) Ethiopian immigrants volunteered to go to family planning clinics.

2) Upon arrival at the clinics, they were met with racism from front line workers and possibly managment of the clincis. Some may have not been informed of the consequences of depo or alternatives. It's also likely that others misunderstood given the language barriers and the living situation they were coming from.

3) The above is exposed. Israeli society is appalled. The government takes steps to fix the situation by launching inquiries and halting the programs responsible for these alleged offences.

Somehow this turns into Israelis society is more racist than other societies and the Israeli government had a policy of forcibly sterilizing Ethiopian immigrants.