Coerced Sterilisation of Romani Women

On December 17, 1971, the Ministry of Health of the Czech Socialist Republic issued a directive on the implementation of sterilization, which specified the wording of Section 27 of Act No. 20/1966 Coll., on the care of public health. This created a legal basis for the implementation of female sterilizations, which was, in reality, also used for involuntary and forced sterilizations of Romani women. In fact, these sterilizations had been carried out since the turn of the fifties and sixties. The legal norms did not contain explicit mentions of ethnicity or coercion, but in fact, some Romani women in particular were forced to undergo sterilization by pressure. This continued until the 1920s. Estimates of the number of women sterilized in this way vary, with some saying the number was around seven thousand. Some of these women were later compensated.