Is it possible that doctors and other officials stressed the importance of family planning and having fewer children to Ethiopian refugees? Almost certainly. Wa

Is it possible that doctors and other officials stressed the importance of family planning and having fewer children to Ethiopian refugees? Almost certainly. Was that appropriate for them to do? That may be debatable, but it hardly rises to any sort of ethics issue. Were refugees told they had to get vaccinations as a condition for their receiving asylum? Very probably; vaccination is frequently a requirement for asylum seekers in many countries. Were Depo-Provera injections also offered? Yes, we know they were. Were they, like vaccinations, mandatory? There is no evidence that that is the case, and in fact we have several accounts of women electing to stop the injections after getting them for months or years. Is it possible that some female refugees, many of whom could not read, write or speak Hebrew (or even English) very well at all, were under the mistaken impression that the Depo-Provera injections they were initially offered were part of the vaccine series they were required to take? In theory, sure, or perhaps these women were misremembering the details of what happened while they were in the middle of an incredibly stressful and exhausting situation, and later forgot the distinction between what was required and what was optional. But even in these cases, there is no evidence that the women were forced to continue with the Depo-Provera injections against their will once they realized what they were taking, or even that any of them were ultimately unaware that they were taking birth control. Does any of this amount to a policy of forced sterilization (or even forced contraception) of immigrants by the Israeli government? That’s a claim that rises beyond irresponsibility to outright dishonesty. But here we are seeing these lies being spread on HN…