
Forced Sterilization in Europe
In 12 EU countries, women with disabilities can still be sterilized without their consent, despite most member states having signed the Istanbul Convention on protecting women from violence. Sara Rocha, an autistic activist and pregnant woman with multiple disabilities, campaigns in Portugal to ban the practice and connects with affected women across the continent. Natacha Ooteghem, sterilized against her will at 24 in Belgium after her own mother deemed her unfit to raise children, describes only now finding the words for her anger, breaking a silence she kept for years while believing the procedure had been for her own good. In Berlin, Sunny Stemmler, who has learning difficulties, raises her three-year-old son Matteo in special accommodation for parents with disabilities, built to prove that parenting is possible when disabled people are supported rather than stopped. Interviews with the women themselves, filmed in their homes and communities, carry the film, laying out a legal practice most viewers will assume ended decades ago.