Against Their Will

APTN News investigates allegations from multiple Indigenous women, Brenda Pelletier, Melika Popp, and Roxanne Ledoux, that staff at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon coerced them into sexual sterilizations against their will. APTN conducted interviews with each woman about their experiences at the University Hospital, all 3 describing how hospital staff and social workers pressured them/ignored their protests to sterilization. In Ledoux's case, she recalled not giving free and informed consent, but being sterilized against her knowledge anyways. Popp was told that the procedure was reversible (which it is not), and was told later on when she was considering having more children that it could not be reversed and she was sterile. For Popp, being sterilized was not only a violation of her human rights, but also prevented her from passing her rights as an Indigenous women to any future children. For more information on these women's experiences, please watch the short investigation.