Symphysiotomy victims accuse doctors of forcing procedures to fight birth control

IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Lyndsey Telford

Wednesday June 13 2012

DOCTORS who forced a brutal medical procedure on pregnant women as recently as the 1990s did it to fight the crime of birth control, it has been claimed.

Victims of symphysiotomy, a practice in which doctors broke women’s pelvises to ease childbirth without their consent, have called for Dail support in their bid for justice and compensation.

Campaigner Marie O’Connor accused medical professionals of depriving women of a caesarean section, which they regarded as an artificial form of contraception.

“Doctors were using a scalpel to control women’s reproductive ways, stopping them from having a much safer caesarean section,” said Ms O’Connor.

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