Trial of a Child Denied

The story

When Helena Ferenciková was 19 and in the throes of labour with her first child, she was told to sign a document — only afterwards did she realise she had authorised her own sterilisation. Eleven years earlier the same had happened to Elena Gorolová. In the Czech Republic, Romani women were sterilised without their knowledge or under duress, a practice rooted in Communist-era policy that outlived the regime. Helena became the first Roma woman to win a case against the hospital that sterilised her, while Elena now addresses international audiences to make sure it never happens again.