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Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at failed female sterilisation as a specific event of reproductive uncertainty. Moving beyond the dichotomous understanding of sterilisation as either forced or voluntary, this paper will conceive surgical sterilisation as a site of continued, contested, and calculated risks.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at cases of failed female sterilisation, a specific event of reproductive uncertainty which has received little attention in existing literature. While the failure rate of sterilisation is statistically miniscule, (1-2%), the question of how contraceptive users and providers deal with this failure nonetheless invokes important debates on bodily autonomy, accountability, agency, decision-making and justice. Female sterilisation is predicated upon the technological promise of permanent contraception, a promise which is enabled by modern forms of surgical intervention such as laparoscopy. What happens when this promise fails? How do existing state and biomedical mechanisms imagine and address these failures? How are the legal provisions of monetary compensation and indemnity clauses navigated? How do women and families experience such failures alongside managing decisions around unwanted conception, abortion, and future contraception?

Exploring such questions, this paper will first conduct a discourse analysis of the contemporary cases of failed sterilisation discussed in popular media, attempting to identify the key actors, stakeholders, mechanisms, debates, and grievances emerging from this problem space. Then, drawing on the feminist theorization of risk as central to gendered experiences, this paper will demonstrate how failed sterilisation is primarily related in terms of risk - the risk of failure, alongside the risk of medical complications and the risk of unwanted conception. Moving beyond the dichotomous understanding of sterilisation as either forced or voluntary, this paper will explore its relation to the body as one defined by uncertainty, conceiving surgical sterilisation as a site of continued, contested, and calculated risks.