Unlike in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, Saskatchewan did not have an official government policy of sterilization.
Forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women is not well documented in Saskatchewan except into recent years, however, there is substantive evidence that it did/does occur. The justification used to normalize the use of coercive sterilization was that it was a preventative measure to ensure that women who were incapable of raising a dependent child, or women who had severe “mental or physical defects” could not give birth. It was argued that this would not only help to eradicate poverty, but it would also lessen the “financial burden” on the federal government because less Indigenous children would be born. Indigenous women were often not consulted before the operation was performed, and/or it was often completed when she was having a different operation done - once it was completed there was no way to reverse it. This took away agency from many Indigenous women because they were no longer in control of their reproductive decisions once this operation was completed.
There were two hospitals in Saskatchewan with documentation of sterilizations performed, one in Fort Qu’Appelle and the other in North Battleford. The documented sterilizations, however, do not account for all of the sterilizations performed in the province. There is evidence that suggests that the government was aware that unsanctioned and undocumented sterilizations of Indigenous women were taking place in Saskatchewan, meaning that the true number of coerced sterilizations will never be completely accurate.