A new group of 34 experts is working on a report about the forced sterilization of Indigenous women. This comes after the passage of Senate Memorial 14 in this year’s legislative session.
The memorial directs the state’s Indian Affairs Department and New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women to lead a study with the goal of identifying all cases of forced sterilization in New Mexico.
According to the memorial, between 25% and 50% of Indigenous women of childbearing age were sterilized. Some of the highest concentrations of procedures were in the Indian Health Service regions of Albuquerque and the Southwest.
State officials told members of the legislative interim Indian Affairs Committee Tuesday that experts will gather survivor testimony, evaluate access to reproductive health care and develop policy, education, and recommendations for reparations.
State Rep.Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) shared her own experience of being nearly sterilized against her will in 1975.
“Had my husband not been there and asking the questions on a form that was being given to me with a checklist, and I being traumatized, I would have exited that very common post-miscarriage procedure, fully sterilized at a very young age of 25,” she said.
Roybal Caballero said that the brave women who shared their stories is what encouraged her to share hers and it’s horrific that these practices are still occurring.
State Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta (D-To’hajiilee) hopes the results will yield efforts to bring the topic of forced sterilization among Native Americans to school curriculums within the state.
“I think that's an important thing that needs to be in our school curriculum,” she said. “I, for one, did not learn that until I was in a Native American Studies higher education program, unfortunately.”
The Indian Affairs Committee has until December 2027 to publish a report.
Support for this coverage comes from Thornburg Foundation.
