“It’s unclear if this is more women choosing to be childfree,” Costescu said, “or increased comfort in advocating” for sterilization. “Often these women have other role models in their life who are also childfree,” Costescu said. “In much of the 20th century, providers engaged in coercive sterilization of women from certain social locations” including Indigenous women and women with disabilities, they write. Costescu sees parallels between the forced sterilizations of Indigenous women and younger women being denied voluntary sterilizations because of paternalistic beliefs. While new Canadian guidelines (which Costescu helped author) recommend no restrictions on the basis of age, Costescu said other doctors told many women in his practice they had to wait until they were 30.

Source: National Post September 06, 2017 17:37 UTC