DoomsdaysCW<p>America’s Forgotten History of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ForcedSterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ForcedSterilization</span></a> </p><p>By Sanjana Manjeshwar on November 4, 2020</p><p>&quot;In early September, a nurse working at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ICE" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ICE</span></a>) detention center in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Georgia" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Georgia</span></a> came forward with shocking allegations of medical neglect and abuse, claiming that numerous involuntary <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/hysterectomies" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>hysterectomies</span></a> (uterus removal surgeries) were performed on detained <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ImmigrantWomen" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ImmigrantWomen</span></a>. This allegation understandably evoked fury and outrage among the general public, with numerous people denouncing it as a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HumanRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HumanRights</span></a> violation and yet another example of the current administration’s cruelty towards women and immigrants. Many people, including prominent liberal politicians and public figures, viewed it as something distinctly un-American and at odds with our country’s values — a common refrain that echoed in response to the allegation was &#39;This isn’t the America I know.&#39; There were countless comparisons to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NaziGermany" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NaziGermany</span></a> and other <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/totalitarian" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>totalitarian</span></a>, human rights-abusing regimes, as well as a pervasive sense that the United States was engaging in a uniquely cruel and unprecedented act. Unfortunately, this is a misleading impression. </p><p>&quot;While the allegations against ICE are undoubtedly horrific and must be investigated, they are not at all unprecedented or un-American — in fact, they are very American. The United States has a long, egregious, and largely unknown history of eugenics and forced <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>sterilization</span></a>, primarily directed towards <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PoorWomen" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PoorWomen</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DisabledWomen" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DisabledWomen</span></a>, and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WomenOfColor" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WomenOfColor</span></a>. </p><p>&quot;The American <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/eugenics" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>eugenics</span></a> movement originated in the late 1800s and has always been undeniably based in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>racism</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nativism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>nativism</span></a>. The word &#39;eugenics&#39; originally referred to the biological improvement of human genes, but was used as a pseudoscience to justify discriminatory and destructive acts against supposedly undesirable people, such as extremely restrictive <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ImmigrationLaws" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ImmigrationLaws</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AntiMiscegenationLaws" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AntiMiscegenationLaws</span></a>, and forced sterilization. The ultimate goal of the eugenics movement was to &#39;breed out&#39; undesirable traits in order to create a society with a &#39;superior&#39; genetic makeup, which essentially meant reducing the population of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NonWhite" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NonWhite</span></a> and the mentally ill. The eugenics movement was widely accepted in American society well into the 20th century, and was not at all relegated to the fringes of society like one might expect. In fact, most states had federally funded eugenics boards, and state-ordered sterilization was a common occurrence. Sterilization was seen as one of the most effective ways to stem the growth of an &#39;undesirable&#39; population, since ending a woman’s reproductive capabilities meant that she would no longer be able to contribute to the population.</p><p>&quot;The Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell (1927) decided that a Virginia law authorizing the mandatory sterilization of inmates in mental institutions was constitutional. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CarrieBuck" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>CarrieBuck</span></a>, a &#39;feeble minded woman&#39; whose mental illness had been in her family for the past three generations, was committed to a state mental institution and was set to undergo a sterilization procedure which required a hearing. The Supreme Court found that the Virginia law was valuable and did not violate the Constitution, and would prevent the United States from &#39;being swamped with incompetence…Three generations of imbeciles is enough.&#39; The Court has never explicitly overturned <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BuckVersusBell" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BuckVersusBell</span></a>.</p><p>&quot;California’s &#39;<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AsexualizationActs" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AsexualizationActs</span></a>&#39; in the 1910s and 1920s led to the sterilization of 20,000 disproportionately <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Black" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Black</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Mexican" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Mexican</span></a> people who were deemed to be mentally ill. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Hitler" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Hitler</span></a> and the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Nazis" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Nazis</span></a> were reportedly inspired by <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/California" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>California</span></a>’s laws when formulating their own <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/genocidal" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>genocidal</span></a> eugenics policies in the 1930s. When discussing the Asexualization Acts of California, Hitler wrote, &#39;There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception [of citizenship] are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UnitedStates" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>UnitedStates</span></a>.&#39;</p><p>&quot;Throughout the 20th century, nearly 70,0000 people (overwhelmingly working-class women of color) were sterilized in over 30 states. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Black" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Black</span></a> women, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Latina" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Latina</span></a> women, and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NativeAmerican" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NativeAmerican</span></a> women were specifically targeted. From the 1930s to the 1970s, nearly one-third of the women in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PuertoRico" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PuertoRico</span></a>, a U.S. territory, were coerced into sterilization when government officials claimed that Puerto Rico’s economy would benefit from a reduced population. Sterilization was so common that it became known as &#39;<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaOperaci%C3%B3n" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LaOperación</span></a> (The Operation)&#39; among Puerto Ricans. </p><p>&quot;Black women were also disproportionately and forcibly sterilized and subjected to reproductive abuse. In <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NorthCarolina" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NorthCarolina</span></a> in the 1960s, Black women made up 65 percent of all sterilizations of women, although they were only 25 percent of the population. One Black woman who was subjected to a forced hysterectomy during this time was <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FannieLouHamer" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>FannieLouHamer</span></a>, a renowned <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CivilRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>CivilRights</span></a> activist. Hamer described how nonconsensual sterilizations of working-class Black women in the South were so common that they were colloquially known as a &#39;<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MississippiAppendectomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>MississippiAppendectomy</span></a>&#39;. </p><p>&quot;Additionally, many Native American women were sterilized against their will. According to a report by historian Jane Lawrence, the Indian Health Service was accused of sterilizing nearly 25% of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Indigenous" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Indigenous</span></a> women during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973, the year that Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court, supposedly ensuring reproductive rights for all American women, the reproductive rights of thousands of Indigenous women were entirely ignored as they were forcibly sterilized. </p><p>&quot;Forced sterilization, especially in exchange for a sentence reduction, occurs often in the criminal <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LegalSystem" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LegalSystem</span></a> today. Government-sanctioned efforts to prevent incarcerated people from reproducing were widespread in the 20th century, and still continue today. In 2017, a judge in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Tennessee" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Tennessee</span></a> offered to reduce the jail sentences of convicted people who appeared before him in court if they <br />&#39;volunteered&#39; to undergo sterilization. In 2009, a 21-year-old woman in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WestVirginia" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WestVirginia</span></a> convicted of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/marijuana" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>marijuana</span></a> possession underwent sterilization as part of her probation. In 2018, an <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Oklahoma" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Oklahoma</span></a> woman convicted of cashing a counterfeit check received a reduced sentence after undergoing sterilization at the suggestion of the judge. According to a report by the Center for Investigative Reporting, almost 150 women considered likely to return to prison were sterilized in California prisons between 2004 and 2003. Although they had to sign &#39;consent&#39; forms, the procedure, when posed as an incentive for a reduced sentence, generates an ongoing debate about whether or not consent actually exists in these situations. Proponents of the sterilization of incarcerated individuals often cite a lack of &#39;personal responsibility,&#39; when in reality, many of these individuals face a lack of support and resources. Even if incarceration was somehow the singular determinant of one’s morals and character, sterilization as part of a prison sentence is still a fundamental violation of the right to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ReproductiveAutonomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ReproductiveAutonomy</span></a> — something judges and prison officials choose to ignore.&quot;</p><p>Read more:<br /><a href="https://bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2020/11/04/americas-forgotten-history-of-forced-sterilization/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/20</span><span class="invisible">20/11/04/americas-forgotten-history-of-forced-sterilization/</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USPol</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/reproductiverights" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>reproductiverights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fascism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BodilyAutomony" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BodilyAutomony</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WhiteNationalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WhiteNationalism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Genocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Genocide</span></a></p>