MANAGERS of a hospital in the eastern Slovak city of Krompachy have filed a complaint over a report that said it carried out forced sterilisations on Roma women.
"Though we are aware that Roma women were manipulated [elsewhere], we want to protect the good reputation of the hospital and its employees," the hospital's director Miroslav Kraus said in a statement February 4.
Krompachy hospital is one of those named in a report published by the Centre of Reproductive Rights in New York in January. The report claims that "coerced and forced sterilisation practices continue in Slovakia," especially in its eastern region, where most Roma people live.
"We want to stress again that all patients, both Roma and non-Roma, were thoroughly instructed about the procedure in the same way, and were sterilised only after they had personally signed an application for this kind of operation," Kraus said.