Falash Mura women who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia eight years ago reportedly told Israel Educational Television’s investigative show Vacuum yesterday that they were forced to receive injections of Depo-Provera, the long-lasting birth control drug, as a condition to allowing their immigration.
The women claimed that Israeli representatives from the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Health Ministry coerced them by telling them that raising large families in Israel is very difficult, that if you have many children it is hard to find work to support them, and that landlords frequently refuse to rent apartments to large families.
50,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel during the past 10 years. During that time, their birthrate reportedly fell by nearly 50 percent.
The women said they were told they had to take what they thought were vaccinations if they wanted to continue to receive medical care from the JDC and be allowed to immigrate.
Many continued to be given Depo-Provera shots once in Israel despite suffering side effects that included severe headaches and abdominal pains.
One woman with osteoporosis told Vacuum that she has been getting Depo-Provera shots for four years without ever being warned by doctors that Depo-Provera is dangerous for women suffering from it.
A hidden camera in an Israeli health clinic filmed an Ethiopian woman being told by a nurse that this shot is usually given only to Ethiopian women.
“[It’s given] primarily to Ethiopian women,” the nurse said, “because they forget, they don’t understand, and it’s hard to explain to them, so it’s best that they receive a shot once every three months…basically they don’t understand anything.”
The Israeli government denied all of the women’s allegations.
However, Vaccum showed a letter from the Health Ministry to Dr. Rick Hodes, the director of the JDC Medical Programs in Ethiopia. The letter praised the Hodes’ work, noting that while fewer than 5% of Ethiopians use any form of birth control, the rate among Hodes’ patients was 30%.
Rachel Mangoli, the director of the WIZO branch in Pardes Hanna, told Vaccum that in 2006 she started a program for Ethiopian children at her local absorption center. A “warning light” lit up when she realized that no babies were born to the center’s Ethiopian residents that year. She checked with the director of the local health clinic and says she was told that all the Ethiopian women at her absorption center had been given contraceptive shots because they could not be relied on to take birth control pills.
In response to Vaccum’s report, the JDC reportedly called the women’s claims “nonsense.”
“The medical team does not intervene directly or indirectly in economic aid and the Joint is not involved in the aliyah procedures,” the JDC statement noted, claiming that Depo-Provera shots are given to Ethiopian women because the JDC’s studies show that it “is the most popular form of birth control among women in Ethiopia.”
The women claimed that Israeli representatives from the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Health Ministry coerced them by telling them that raising large families in Israel is very difficult, that if you have many children it is hard to find work to support them, and that landlords frequently refuse to rent apartments to large families.
50,000 Ethiopian Jews have immigrated to Israel during the past 10 years. During that time, their birthrate reportedly fell by nearly 50 percent.
The women said they were told they had to take what they thought were vaccinations if they wanted to continue to receive medical care from the JDC and be allowed to immigrate.
Many continued to be given Depo-Provera shots once in Israel despite suffering side effects that included severe headaches and abdominal pains.
One woman with osteoporosis told Vacuum that she has been getting Depo-Provera shots for four years without ever being warned by doctors that Depo-Provera is dangerous for women suffering from it.
A hidden camera in an Israeli health clinic filmed an Ethiopian woman being told by a nurse that this shot is usually given only to Ethiopian women.
“[It’s given] primarily to Ethiopian women,” the nurse said, “because they forget, they don’t understand, and it’s hard to explain to them, so it’s best that they receive a shot once every three months…basically they don’t understand anything.”
The Israeli government denied all of the women’s allegations.
However, Vaccum showed a letter from the Health Ministry to Dr. Rick Hodes, the director of the JDC Medical Programs in Ethiopia. The letter praised the Hodes’ work, noting that while fewer than 5% of Ethiopians use any form of birth control, the rate among Hodes’ patients was 30%.
Rachel Mangoli, the director of the WIZO branch in Pardes Hanna, told Vaccum that in 2006 she started a program for Ethiopian children at her local absorption center. A “warning light” lit up when she realized that no babies were born to the center’s Ethiopian residents that year. She checked with the director of the local health clinic and says she was told that all the Ethiopian women at her absorption center had been given contraceptive shots because they could not be relied on to take birth control pills.
In response to Vaccum’s report, the JDC reportedly called the women’s claims “nonsense.”
“The medical team does not intervene directly or indirectly in economic aid and the Joint is not involved in the aliyah procedures,” the JDC statement noted, claiming that Depo-Provera shots are given to Ethiopian women because the JDC’s studies show that it “is the most popular form of birth control among women in Ethiopia.”
Source ( HAARETZ)
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