Native American women still show elevated sterilization rates as of 2010

Evidence

These practices have a long and disturbing half-life. The Urban Indian Health Institute found in 2010 that American Indian and Alaska Native women have higher rates of sterilization than white women, adding that more study would be required to tell them exactly why. The UIHI speculated that it was possible that some of the women surveyed had been “directly affected” by coercive sterilization practices, in which women may have been subject to “harassment or deceit” to get them to agree to the procedure. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 163

Categorization

• QUESTION: The UIHI itself says more study is needed; worth chasing the actual follow-up findings or mechanisms behind the persistent disparity.