Forced Sterilizations: The Cover-Up Continues
In 1996, during the second government of Alberto Fujimori, the National Program of Reproductive Health and Family Planning was implemented as a public policy to curb birth rates, combat poverty, and promote the country's development. More than 300,000 women, mostly illiterate — or with low levels of schooling — living in the country's poorest and most remote communities were forcibly sterilized (or coerced through deception, threats, and blackmail) as part of the Program. Despite all the complaints and compelling evidence documenting a clear public policy promoting sterilizations, the Peruvian State denies the existence of such quotas.