Czech Roma women forcibly sterilised a step closer to reparations

Cautious optimism among victims as Czech MPs approve bill that would allow them to seek reparations.

In 1994, 20-year-old Radka Hancilova went to the Masaryk Municipal Hospital, in northern Czech Republic, for a planned Caesarean section. Before she gave birth, without her knowledge, doctors offered her tubal ligation – a surgical sterilisation procedure that permanently prevents pregnancy. “They described it as a medical advancement and a form of birth control,” said Hancilova, who has Roma origins.