Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 13, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Pro-life groups in Argentina are warning that a new law on vasectomies and tubal ligations that was approved by the Senate jeopardizes the right to the corporal integrity of each person, recognized in numerous international human rights treaties.
They are also protesting the inclusion of these services in the country’s health care programs, warning that the goals behind such decisions could be less than honorable.
“As has taken place in other countries, such as Peru, the carrying out of these goals means limiting the freedom of individuals, especially those who are in so-called ‘risk groups,’” said leaders of the pro-life movement Fundar. “In Peru a forced sterilization campaign, which has been rightly denounced, has affected more than 300,000 women and 24,000 men,” the group said.
In September of 1995, the Peruvian government set up a national family planning program that included sterilization without consent, especially among the country’s poor.