Activists Claim Uzbek Government Has Ordered Forced Sterilization of Women to Lower Birth Rate

A human rights group and a think-tank alleged Tuesday that Uzbekistan’s government has instructed health workers to surgically sterilize women as part of a campaign to reduce the birth rate of the authoritarian ex-Soviet nation.

Uzbek health officials did not answer repeated telephone calls from The Associated Press to seek their comment about the allegation.

However, previous human rights, United Nations and U.S. State Department reports also have alleged that women in the central Asian country have been forced or duped into sterilization.

Uzbekistan’s government retains strict Soviet-style control over health institutions in the predominantly Muslim nation of 27 million, whose population has been growing quickly.'

Read more...