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Woman made sterile wins case

Court orders hospital to pay Romany woman in landmark ruling

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
October 17th, 2007 issue

In an unprecedented ruling, the Regional Court in Ostrava ordered a local hospital Oct. 12 to pay 500,000 Kč [$26,000] in damages and publicly apologize to a Romany woman who was sterilized against her will 10 years ago.
The woman, 30-year-old Iveta Červeňáková, was sterilized without proper consent at Ostrava City Hospital after giving birth via Caesarian section in 1997. According to Červeňáková, who was 19 at the time, hospital staff gave her a form to sign only after she was under the influence of an anesthetic.
For months after the incident, Červeňáková was under the impression that the procedure was an Intra-Uterine Device, a temporary form of birth control, she told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) Oct. 12.
Although national ombudsman Otakar Motejl says he has recorded over 80 similar cases, the court ruling marks the country’s first case in which a coercively sterilized woman received financial compensation, according to Kumar Vishwanathan, director of Life Together, a civic association for Romany rights.
“The court decision has resolved a legal vacuum that women like Červeňáková have been trapped in for years,” says Červeňáková’s lawyer Michaela Kopalova. “It shows that the judicial system is finally starting to work.”
Ostrava City Hospital spokeswoman Marie Dlabalová claims the hospital did not break any laws because it obtained Červeňáková’s written consent prior to the procedure, and is considering an appeal to the High Court in Olomouc, according to ČTK.
While they view the outcome of Červeňáková’s case as positive, local human rights activists including Gwendolyn Albert, director of the Women’s Initiatives Network of the Peaceworks Development Fund, say the government has not done enough to address the issue by failing to provide state legal aid that would allow women like Červeňáková to file joint lawsuits against hospitals that sterilized them against their will.
Although the Czech government has taken responsibility for coercive sterilization during communism, it has failed to do enough to compensate women sterilized after 1991, Albert says.

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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