Between 1973 and 1976, 4 of the 12 Indian Health Service regions sterilize 3,406 American Indian women without their permission, according to a future study by the U.S. General Accounting Office. In addition, 36 women under age 21 are forcibly sterilized despite a court-ordered moratorium on sterilizations of women younger than 21. An independent study by Dr. Connie Pinkerton-Uri (Choctaw/Cherokee) finds that one in four American Indian women are sterilized without their consent. Pinkerton-Uri’s research indicates that the Indian Health Service “singled out full-blooded Indian women for sterilization procedures.”