Lawsuit filed against Argentine health minister for launching campaign to sterilize teenage girls

The American Women’s Association (AMA) filed a lawsuit against the Argentine health minister Carla Vizzotti for promoting tubal ligations and vasectomies for children as young as 16, violating the Covenant of San José de Costa Rica.

Few media outlets have reported it, but this week members of the American Women’s Association (AMA) filed criminal charges against Health Minister Carla Vizzotti for dereliction of duty in connection with the controversial campaign to sterilize adolescent girls.

From the Ministry of Health, Vizzotti has placed particular emphasis on a campaign that offers free surgical contraceptive surgeries, such as tubal ligations and vasectomies, to women 16 and older in public hospitals.

These surgeries are irreversible for the women and violate the person’s dignity, as they limit people’s freedom to make motherhood decisions for the rest of their lives, for people who do not yet have the maturity to make these decisions, says AMA.

The lawsuit was filed by AMA founders Mercedes Moreno Klappenbach and Pilar Santucci, who claim that the measure “encourages the mutilation of organs essential for reproduction” and that the campaign, sponsored by the ministry, “fraudulently disregards the Covenant of San José de Costa Rica, expressly included in the National Constitution, on the age of majority.”

“I am shocked that this is the only thing the Minister of Health has to offer young people. It’s nonsensical to think that Vizzotti made a mistake because since the voting age is 16, she thought that was the age of majority, but it’s not,” said Moreno Klappenbach.

She added, “Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child of the Argentine Republic declares that a child is any human being from the moment of conception until the age of 18.

The lawsuit of the two women was filed before the Federal Criminal and Penitentiary Court No. 11, under the jurisdiction of Judge Julian Ercolini.

The case was referred to the Office 8 of the Public Prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, whose head is Eduardo Taiano, who must follow up on the investigation.

“The worst thing about the campaign promoted by Vizzotti is that it equates irreversible surgery with other non-invasive contraceptive methods, such as using condoms or diaphragms,’ says Moreno.

A poster on the Ministry’s Twitter account stated, “in public hospitals, health centers, Social Security and prepaid services, the contraceptive method you want must be provided free of charge,” including in doctors’ offices.

Another publication refers directly to tubal ligation and vasectomy.

The poster states, “Starting at age 13, you can get information and use the reversible contraceptive method of your choice without being accompanied by an adult.

It says, “From the age of 16, you also have free access to permanent contraceptive methods: ligation and vasectomy.”

It should be noted that these methods have been used for genocide by dictatorships throughout history, and there is a very recent case of China sterilizing Uighur women in Xinjiang province.