The Roma people, or Gypsies as they are commonly called, have been living in European countries for centuries. There is no good statistics on their numbers, but conservative estimates put their population between 6 and 10 million spread across Europe. Originally thought to have come from Northern India, many have continued to keep a nomadic lifestyle despite living in industrialized countries of Western and Eastern Europe. Many associate the Roma with flamboyant costumes, exotic music, dancing, and moving from city to city putting on colorful festivals. Though some did inherit this lifestyle, the Roma have moved into many different aspects of European life and occupy positions in business, finance, law and medicine. Some have found their way to the US as well.
Yet the history and present-day reality of the Roma has been one of persecution. They were exterminated in large numbers by the Nazis. Estimates place the loss of life in German concentration camps between 500,000 and 700,000 Roma. Unfortunately, the Roma continue to suffer prejudice and persecution. They are the region's most vulnerable and marginalized people. Roma children rarely go to secondary school and less than half finish primary school. With a severe lack of professional or skilled workers and unemployment rates near 70%, the Roma are unofficially delegated to living in abject poverty.
The list of human rights violations is long indeed, including the denial of proper education, adequate housing and sanitation, fair and equitable employment opportunities, and access to basic medical care. Life expectancy for the Roma is about 10 years less than an average European. They have the highest birth rates in Europe, but also have the highest infant mortality and a very high number of birth defects. Tuberculosis is endemic and vaccination coverage for children is very poor.
Instability and economic crisis have increased long-standing discrimination and violence against the Roma. Emerging nationalist movements in Eastern Europe have reawakened anti-Roma sentiments, previously held in check under communist rule. Racist incidents against Roma are now a regular occurrence. One prominent politician brazenly stated during a political rally that the "problem of the Roma" had to be dealt with in a serious manner because, given their higher birth rates, in "40 years the Roma people will be more than half the population."
Reports of involuntary sterilization of Roma women have been circulating for years, though no serious effort has been made by any government to investigate them. The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) performed two separate investigations during the fall of 2002 in Slovakia to document these allegations and make an attempt to medically document women's reproductive histories. As a member of DGH, I accompanied CRR on one of these missions.
What we found was shocking, even by developing country standards. Living conditions in many Roma settlements, often placed outside the town environs, were basic if not downright degrading. Housing was dilapidated, overcrowding was the norm, and access to running water and basic sanitation was scarce. But what surprised us most was the way Roma women were treated in Slovakian health care institutions.
The local lawyers on our mission had power of attorney documents from dozens of women to gain access to their medical records. They were systematically told this access would be allowed only to be turned away repeatedly at the last moment by hospital administrators and OB managers. Even when Roma women got up enough courage to ask for their own records, they were often turned away and refused access with obscenities and insults being shouted at them, even in the presence of our mission members.
CRR succeeded in collecting stories from dozens of Roma women about mistreatment in OB services. Especially common were stories of segregated wards where Roma women got less food, clean bedding and towels, and less support for their newborns. We often heard stories about emergency C-sections without consent or signed under duress, and frequently performed for their second delivery. The women report being unable to conceive again after these C-sections. We suspect tubal ligations were performed during the operation, a simple procedure that renders a woman infertile. We had hoped to check for radiographic confirmation of this procedure by doing hysterosalpingograms (dye injected into the uterus and fallopian tubes), but we could not find a radiologist there willing to perform the procedures. Without radiographic or visual confirmation (looking at the uterus and tubes through a laparoscopy camera), proving these allegations is impossible.
Our investigation revealed that there is overwhelming evidence of forced or coerced sterilizations; extreme misinformation in reproductive health services; racially discriminatory access to health care; extensive physical and verbal abuse by medical providers; and widespread denial of access to medical records for the Roma.
The issue of sterilization of Roma women in Slovakia is particularly relevant now, as Slovakia might be applying for membership in the European Union (EU). If such allegations of involuntary sterilization of an oppressed minority are found to be largely true, this would severely limit their chances of EU membership. Our hope is to continue to collect histories from women and to eventually medically confirm that they have been sterilized, forcing the government to end this practice.
- Read the CRR report Body and Soul: Forced Sterilization and Other Assaults on Roma Reproductive Freedom, at www.reproductiverights.org.
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