The European Disability Forum expresses its consternation with Dr Ghada Hatem’s and Dr. Rey-Quinio comments regarding the sterilisation of women with disabilities without consent on the recently published Euronews report “The consent dilemma: Why France is struggling to end forced sterilisation of women with disabilities“.
We strongly denounce their paternalistic and infantilising assumptions that women with intellectual disabilities are not fit to have children. Supports must be in place to ensure that all women with disabilities can enjoy their bodily autonomy and have children if they wish to do so.
As members of the Committees of experts that assess this decision, both experts must ensure that all women, including women with disabilities, enjoy their full right to bodily autonomy. The Committees must follow the human rights paradigm of disability embodied by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which France has ratified. This paradigm includes respect for inherent dignity and individual autonomy of persons with disabilities, including the freedom to make one’s own choices. We call on the government to ensure that experts on the Committees deciding on sterilisation, and all actors involved, are aware of France’s obligations under this Convention.
Pirkko Mahlamäki, chair of the EDF Women’s Committee said:
The members’ comments in the report show the persistent paternalistic, infantilising and patriarchal belief that undermines the right of women with disabilities to bodily autonomy. These comments run contrary to the rights that all women must enjoy. Neither States nor doctors must overrule women when it comes to their right to bodily autonomy and integrity – this is, as we know, an essential demand from the women’s rights movement, whether it is about genital mutilation, abortion or not being forcibly sterilised. We urge the French State and the members of the expert Committee to follow a human rights model and ensure every woman has the right to make their own decisions about their body.