Symphysiotomy ‘to fight birth control’

Doctors who forced a brutal medical procedure on pregnant women as recently as the 1990s did it to fight the crime of birth control, it has been claimed.

Victims of symphysiotomy, a practice in which doctors broke women’s pelvises to ease childbirth without their consent, have called for Dáil support in their bid for justice and compensation.

Campaigner Marie O’Connor accused medical professionals of depriving women of a caesarean section, which they regarded as an artificial form of contraception.