Another Saskatoon woman says she was sterilized against her will

Another aboriginalwoman has come forward to say she was sterilized against her will at the Royal University Hospital (RUH) in Saskatoon.

• 'I didn't want it done': Saskatoon woman was sterilized against her will

"I want to make it very clear I am not a victim," saidMelikaPopp. "I'm a survivor."

Over the past seven years,Poppsaid she's soughtcounsellingand therapy. She's tried to focus on her career, and her degree in business administration.But the mother of two said she still feels 'violated' after beingsterilized against her will in 2008, at RUH.

They said it would be reversible, with no side effects.- MelikaPopp

Poppremembers being admittedto the hospital when she wassix months into her pregnancy, suffering from gestational diabetes and cramping. There, a nurse asked her what birth control she'd been taking, and why she hadn't used condoms.

"I felt very harassed," Popp, who went on to file a formal complaint, said.

Two months later, she suffered aplacentalabruptionandagreed to haveacaesarian section.

"The doctors said, 'You don't want to be in this situation again,'" she said.They advised her to sign consent forms for atuballigation following theC-section.

"I feel very targeted. It was under duress. I was so hormonal at that time,"Poppsaid. "They said it would be reversible, with no side effects."

Poppsaid she has never had any issues or history of taking alcohol or recreational drugs.She hopes by sharing her story, other women will come forwardand begin to heal.

"As a mother I cannot tell you what this has done to my inner core,"Poppadded.

She saidshe is exploring legal options, after learning about other aboriginal women in Saskatoon who underwent similarsterilizations.

"Having my reproductive organs crippled, robs my children of future siblingsand my ability to pass on future aboriginal title and rights to land," Popp said.

"It's systemic racism," she said. "That's a form of cultural genocide."

Four aboriginal women have come forward to CBC

In November, CBC spoke to BrendaPelletier, an aboriginal woman who said she waspressured to gettuballigation after shedelivered her daughter at Royal University Hospital five years ago.

CBC hasbeen in touch with a third woman,RoxanneLedoux, who is Cree, and another woman who did not want to be identified.

In November, officials at the Saskatoon Health Region said they hadapologized toPelletierand another womanwith a similar story.

Jackie Mann, vice-president of integrated health services with the Saskatoon Health Region, said at the time, thatRUHhadchanged its policies ontuballigation: Women must talk it over with their physician and complete consent formsbefore they arrive in hospital to deliver their baby.

They have not said what the policy was before.

When contacted on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the health region said it willnot be doing an interview to respond to Popp's complaints. But if Popp contacts them directly with her concerns, the health region willdo a confidential review of her file and respond to her concerns and questions.

Last month, officials at the health region promised they'd hire an outside investigator to determine what went wrong. In an e-mail today they confirmed they were "still in the process" of doing that.

'There is a big issue of accountability', saysbioethicist

Arthur Schafer is a bioethicist and director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba.

He said, theoretically, it is ethical to encourage women to consider sterilization under certain circumstances. But there are limits.

"Womenwhose lives are so chaotic that their children have to be taken into care, who have more children than anyone could look after, who are unable to care for themselves let alone babies, should be given this option and they should be helped to understand that it might enhance their lives," Schafer said.

But he added that the women should be gently encouraged and not bullied.

"At some point when you keep pressing it, and especially if the circumstances are such that the women can't easily reflect on it because their hormones are raging or they're about to face surgery or for whatever reason, then it becomes illegitimate," Schafer said.

He noted he doesn't know if the health care employees in these situations were makingsincere attempts, if there was a misunderstanding or if the womenwere coerced.

"If they were coerced, was it well-meaning or racially prejudiced nurses, doctors who were doing it or was it a hospital policy?And was the policy perhaps applied in a racialized way, or an inappropriate way, or not followed?There is a big issue of accountability."

He said the health region should give answers to these questionsso the public, First Nations communities and the women involved can understand the facts.