Reports have suggested that women in three Kilinochchi villages were subjected to coercive birth control last month.
After being asked to visit the hospital to check up their children, the doctors allegedly used coercive language to convince the women to take Progestogen-only subdermal implants (PODIs), a long-term hormonal birth control under the skin of a women’s upper arm.
Speaking to reporters one woman said,
“They treated me but I wanted to see the doctor who did this to me, but he wasn’t there. And the other doctor told me that he doesn’t know anything about this. The other doctor told me that I will be okay, but now I am not okay. How can these educated people do this to us I wish they gave me time to think about this. They forced us to make a decision on the spot. I couldn’t speak to my husband or anyone that I knew. These doctors are not nice people. The cheated me.”