ABSTRACT
From 1996 through 1998, the state-run family planning program in Peru carried out mass sterilization campaigns that targeted women in poor, primarily indigenous, rural communities. The program prioritized sterilization over other forms of contraception, performed surgical contraception under low-quality conditions that at times led to the death or serious injury of the patients, and often carried out the sterilizations without fi rst obtaining voluntary, informed consent. The sheer number of these sterilizations (217,446 from 1996 through 1998) was achieved in part through a system of quotas that provided little incentive for high-quality care.2 In late 1998, a feminist lawyer investigating abuses in state-run hospitals stumbled upon evidence of problems in the family planning program and began to disseminate her fi ndings to the media. Her action initiated closer scrutiny and ultimately created demands for the program’s reform.
