The Involuntary Sterilization of Women. Beware of the treachery of government.
Three scriptures come to mind as I look at today’s topic. They are Genesis 1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them., Mark 12:31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ and Galatians 6:10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. The Scriptures indicate that we should value human life because we are made in God’s image. Not only are we to value human life but we are to love (act in their interest) every person. We are to do good not evil to every person.
Some individuals pursue Godly behavior. They commit themselves to following Christ and live selflessly, seeking the good of others. Governments, on the other hand, do not do this. Reinhold Niebuhr in “Moral Man and Immoral Society” refutes the idea that society can make valid moral judgments. Individuals not societies make moral decisions. This means that we as individuals are obligated to be aware of what government is doing and resist all that is evil. We should attempt to touch the hearts of every person so that they might follow Christ and commit to a Godly and moral course. We must also, as God’s people, actively oppose government as it does evil.
Over the last one hundred years, eugenics has been practiced by governments in order to “arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable.” No one says such a thing out loud any longer but policies are implemented that do exactly that. We are constantly trying to eliminate the “other.” I am not speaking of “banana republic” governments, I am speaking of “respectable” governments. It appears to be a fact that Hitler derived his concept of Aryan purity from American eugenicist. This is not a thing of the distant past. Don’t we put our abortion clinics in black and minority communities? The so very progressive Danish government has recently been sterilizing Inuit[1] women in Greenland without their knowledge or permission. Almost 5000 Inuit women in Greenland are known to have been sterilized without their knowledge or consent. [2] The Danish government did not feel that the Inuit women were smart enough to realize that they should be taking birth control and decided to cull the population. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the United States between 1970 and 1976, 25-50% of Native American women were sterilized, often without their knowledge. [3] Canada also engaged in involuntary sterilizations. Sixty First Nation women filed a class action lawsuit in 2018, alleging they had undergone forced sterilizations over a period of thirty years in Saskatchewan. The Peace Corps was blamed for in voluntary sterilization in Bolivia and there are records of such behaviors in Peru, and Mexico.[4] Africa has also seen governmental programs leading to involuntary sterilizations in Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and Malaysia. In all these settings societies of “good” people decided that we needed less of “other” people.
This disrespect of different races and classes of people is not acceptable. While not in line with Christian values, it is very much in line with societal values. The concept of the “Negative Other”[5] hovers just out of sight in the mind of all societies. As a result of this wicked attitude women have suffered physical pain and suffering. Even worse, they have been deprived of a basic human right, the right to have a child of their own. Is this acceptable?
A better world comes through a Christian worldview, an awareness of our surroundings and a boldness to turn belief into action. The time to be bold is now.
[1] The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Alaska.
[2] John Stonestreet, Breakpoint, “Denmark Secretly Inserted IUDs in Greenland’s Women for Decades
According to the BBC, doctors in Greenland inserted intrauterine devices into several thousand local women without their knowledge or consent.” January 11, 2023 https://breakpoint.org/denmark-secretly-inserted-iuds-in-greenlands-women-for-decades/
[3] Jean-Philippe Stone, Organization for World Peace, “Stealing Wombs: Population Control And Forced Sterilisations In Greenland and Beyond” August 20, 2022 https://theowp.org/reports/stealing-wombs-population-control-and-forced-sterilisations-in-greenland-and-beyond/?_hsmi=241164718&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–G5JcP5Qk2UfO7TKtQF2sHjapvhLxVcqxyjDmz9jIvVgAvqUfdSelOnEg3ENhSWGt_jd-0sWafPl CydGOUQJKabS0blQ
[4] Ibid
[5] The idea that others have a lesser value because they lack an attribute that I have. Sally received a C while I received a B. I have blue eyes while Tony has brown eyes. I live in suburbia but he lives across the tracks. I am white but Tony has brown skin. I am male, she is female. In all those examples value is attributed someone on the basis of a meaningless criteria. This allows for the division of people and groups. Those who are the lesser, the negative other, can be discriminated against because they are not as valuable as I am.