THE OTHER BIRTH CONTROL FIGHT

Women’s bodily autonomy has long been under attack, with talk of the government restricting access to contraception even as abortion is illegal in many places. But one lesser-known aspect of reproductive control is the right to be sterilized—which many women are denied even if they're positive they want no future pregnancies.

- GINNY GRAVES

Some years ago, Rhiannon,* then in her mid-30s, moved with her husband from Detroit to Rockford, IL. At her first appointment with her new gynecologist, she asked to be sterilized. “My husband knew I didn’t want kids, and he was fine with it, but the doctor said he wouldn’t approve the surgery unless my husband came to the office and gave his permission. I was infuriated and said, ‘Absolutely not. I don’t need my husband, my father, or any other man making decisions about my body,’” she recalls.

By then Rhiannon’s requests for permanent contraception had been denied repeatedly—starting when she was 18. “When I brought it up with my gynecologist at the time, she said, ‘You’re young. What if you change your mind? What if your spouse wants children? Who is going to take care of you when you’re older?’” Rhiannon remembers.

“She suggested we create a ‘baseline’ and talk about it the following year, like it was some strange symptom that would probably go away on its own. I was irritated. I had known from the time I was 7 that having kids wasn’t for me, and I was trying to do the right thing for my life and my health.”

Rhiannon revisited the subject with her doctor several times throughout her 20s, including when her mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and genetic testing revealed that a variant in one of Rhiannon's BRCA genes increased her risk for the disease.

“The oncologist told me I should have my ovaries removed, but my gynecologist said I should wait until I was 35 for health reasons,” Rhiannon says. Young women who lose their ovaries are at increased risk for health problems including heart disease and stroke.

“But I think my gynecologist was also using it to stop me from being sterilized,” Rhiannon adds.