Ethiopians face wide-spread discrimination in jobs, housing, and education and it's reported that their blood donations are usually discarded.

“This is about reducing the number of births in a community that is black and mostly poor,” said Hedva Eyal, the author of the report by Woman to Woman, a feminist organization based in Haifa, in northern Israel. “The unspoken policy is that only children who are white and Ashkenazi are wanted in Israel,” she said, referring to the term for European Jews who founded Israel and continue to dominate its institutions.

According to The National, "Women’s groups were alerted to the widespread use of Depo Provera in the Ethiopian community in 2008 when Rachel Mangoli, who runs a day care centre for 120 Ethiopian children in Bnei Braq, a suburb of Tel Aviv, observed that she had received only one new child in the previous three years."

“I started to think about how strange the situation was after I had to send back donated baby clothes because there was no one in the community to give them to,” she said.

Ms Mangoli, who interviewed the women, said: “They had not been told about alternative forms of contraception or about the side effects or given medical follow-ups.” The women complained of a wide range of side effects associated with the drug, including headaches, abdominal pain, fatigue, nausea, loss of libido and general burning sensations.

Depo Provera is also known to decrease bone density, especially among dark-skinned women, which can lead to osteoporosis in later life. Doctors are concerned that it is difficult or impossible to help women who experience severe side effects because the drug is in their system for months after it is injected.The contraceptive’s reputation has also been tarnished by its association with South Africa, where the apartheid government had used it, often coercively, to limit the fertility of black women, according to The National.

This information really makes me mad and reminds me of the Sterilization practices that use to go on in the United States.

When first questioned about Depo Provera in June 2008, the health minister of the time, Yaacov Ben Yezri, said the high number of Ethiopians in Israel using the drug reflected a “cultural preference” for injections among Ethiopians. In fact, according to figures of the World Health Organization, three-quarters of women in Ethiopia using birth control take the oral pill.

My Thoughts...

When reading this article, I was both appalled and saddened by the facts and figures presented. First off, Africans should not be treated as second-class citizens on any occasion. It even frustrates me that they are trying to prevent the freedom for reproductive justice because of their selfish reasons. It is not only disgusting, but it is ignorant to try and prevent a race of people from prospering and contributing to society. There should be some sort of justice in this situation. I am all for contraceptives and learning more about your health, but people should not be forced "Sterilization" to downsize a population, especially based on racist inclinations. With some exposure to the craziness going on in Israel, I believe this will shed some light on the situation and help Women's Groups Focus on helping women who are being subjected to mistreatment and racism have a better of chance of raising beautiful children that can contribute to society.

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