Widespread sterilization operation led by the U.S. during the 1950s and 60s in Puerto Rico.

This documentary was referenced in this interview with Jose Vega by Garland Dixon.

from ZinnProject.org:

La Operación is a 1982 documentary that shows the widespread sterilization operation led by the U.S. during the 1950s and 60s in Puerto Rico. Ana María García directed the film which highlights how the U.S. pushed for increased female sterilization in Puerto Rico. She mixes in the documentary a blend of interviews with women from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds but the interviews are not the only focus of her work; she also incorporates scenes showing a sterilization procedure in addition to other historical and contextual parts. 

Puerto Rican women and their families were promised success and stability after they underwent “la operación,” or sterilization. These efforts undercut the agency of women over their own bodies as they may have been drawn to the procedure and its false promises out of economic necessity/social pressure. The operation was marketed as a solution to poverty and many women thought that once their tubes were tied, they could be “untied.” This was not the case and they ended up losing their reproductive rights to give birth to more children. The film portrays these women as victims of this lack of knowledge and forced sterilization. 

La Operación [. . .] does a remarkable job of linking colonial policies and their impacts on the lives of Puerto Rican women, a perspective that is often left out of discussions about the U.S.-led sterilization. [Description from Journeys at Dartmouth essay.]

This background on this period of Puerto Rican history is good.  

War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony https://t.co/USnfVeCDOF via @amazon

— St. Michael, the Archangel (@aveng_angel) February 6, 2024

WOMEN WHO EAT A LOT OF FAST FOOD MAY TAKE LONGER TO BECOME PREGNANT

EATING FAST FOOD LINKED TO INFERTILITY

Lisa Rapaport reported on a study conducted by the Robinson Research Institute and the University of Adelaide in Australia

that showed the eating fast-food 4 times a week double the rate of infertility in women from 8% to 16%.  Nothing to sneeze at, particularly given the difficulty that some women have at getting pregnant in the first place due to age and factors besides diet.  So fast-food doesn't make women infertile the report will claim; it simply means that eating junk food may cause a delay with some woman in getting pregnant.

Compared to women who generally avoided fast food, women who indulged four or more times a week before they conceived took almost a month longer to become pregnant, the study of 5,598 first-time mothers in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK found.

39% of women conceived in one month of having sex with their partner without contraception, obviously.  

But here's the kicker: 8% experienced infertility and failed to conceive after 12 months of trying.  

Overall, 2,204 women, or 39 percent, conceived within one month of when they began having sex with their partner without contraception and 468, or 8 percent, experienced infertility and failed to conceive after 12 months of trying.

That 8% infertility is just an average, not including an average or subgroup of women eating fast-food.  Fast-food is the advertising euphemism to make junk food palatable.

While women who rarely or never ate fast food had an 8 percent risk of infertility, the risk was 16 percent among women who ate fast food at least four times weekly.

A healthier diet for most folks is to eat lots of polyphenols in their daily diet.  That means lots of plant products, but not just any plant products.  You can't eat grapes all day long and expect to be healthy.  No, I am talking about low-glycemic fruits and vegetables, which turns out to be greens and dark or red colored fruit.  Low-glycemic is the key.  

“Fast foods contain high amounts of saturated fat, sodium, and sometimes sugar,” said lead study author Jessica Grieger of the Robinson Research Institute and the University of Adelaide in Australia.

But just as the study asserts its conclusions, the authors retract it . . . sort of . . . by disclaiming any direct relationship between diet and health.  Oh, brother.  I cannot think of any greater or obvious connection in the world.  People can absorb a lot of unhealthy habits and put on years but might find themselves aging poorly without noticing it.  Or maybe they do notice it, but cannot find a way to stop or a way out of their unhealthy habits.  I would go further to say that male fertility is also connected to eating well.  

Although these dietary components and their relationship to fertility has not been specifically studied in human pregnancies, higher amounts of saturated fatty acids were identified in oocytes (an egg cell in the ovary) of women undergoing assisted reproduction and studies in mice have demonstrated that a high-fat diet had a toxic effect on the ovaries,” Grieger said by email. “We believe that fast food may be one factor mediating infertility through altered ovarian function.”

The Eurekalert concluded that 

. . . while intake of fruit and fast foods affected time to pregnancy, pre-pregnancy intake of green leafy vegetables or fish did not.

Meaning that the vegetables and fish did not disrupt or cause any delay in time to getting pregnant.  

There are other culprits to infertility besides junk food.  Lisa Rapaport's report lists a few from the study. 

The risk increases with age, and can also be exacerbated by smoking, excessive drinking, stress, an unhealthy diet, too much exercise, being overweight or obese or having sexually transmitted infections.

Women in the current study were typically overweight and most of them ate fast food at least twice a week, the study team notes in Human Reproduction. 

There are ways to boost fertility naturally.