DoomsdaysCW<p>So, on the opposite end, this <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Michigan" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Michigan</span></a> lawmaker chose <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Sterilization</span></a>, and is receiving <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DeathThreats" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DeathThreats</span></a>?!! This is truly insanity! Beyond <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/idiocracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>idiocracy</span></a>! </p><p>Death threats follow Michigan Democratic lawmaker’s decision to have herself sterilized</p><p>Story by Andrew Roth, 2/11/2025</p><p>"Michigan state Rep. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LauriePohutsky" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LauriePohutsky</span></a> (D-Livonia) said she’s received death threats after revealing during a rally last week that she underwent voluntary sterilization because she was concerned about the future of reproductive health care during President Donald Trump’s second term in office.</p><p>"Pohutsky’s comments during a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/50501Movement" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>50501Movement</span></a> rally in Lansing last week quickly spread across the internet, including among right wing media circles. The rally was part of a national movement that aimed to hold 50 protests in 50 states on one day.</p><p>"'I refuse to let my body be treated as currency by an administration that only sees value in my ability to procreate,' Pohutsky said during the rally, emphasizing that 'a sitting government official opted for voluntary sterilization because she was uncertain she would be able to access <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/contraception" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>contraception</span></a> in the future.'</p><p>"Pohutsky’s social media profiles were quickly bombarded with hostile comments.</p><p>"In one voicemail left with her office, a caller says that “godless people” are going to be “eliminated” and warns Pohutsky that she is “on notice.”</p><p>"Some of the threats have been referred to law enforcement to investigate, Pohutsky said.</p><p>"Pohutsky said that U.S. Rep. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RashidaTlaib" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RashidaTlaib</span></a> (D-Detroit) reached out to her after the speech gained traction online, noting that Tlaib is no stranger to viral moments or receiving threats.</p><p>"The speech also garnered the attention of conservatives on a national level, including Ben Shapiro, who said of Pohutsky, “So many broken people.”</p><p>"The fourth-term House member responded to Shapiro, saying “I think the broken people are the ones who are personally aggrieved by my personal health care decision.”</p><p>"Pohutsky said she and her husband decided last year that they were done having children and began exploring options for more permanent forms of birth control, citing her concern after Trump won the election about being able to continue to access the contraception she had been using."</p><p><a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/death-threats-follow-michigan-democratic-lawmaker-s-decision-to-have-herself-sterilized/ar-AA1yPmKK" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">msn.com/en-us/politics/governm</span><span class="invisible">ent/death-threats-follow-michigan-democratic-lawmaker-s-decision-to-have-herself-sterilized/ar-AA1yPmKK</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/ReproductiveAutonomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ReproductiveAutonomy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Sterilization</span></a></p>
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#sterilization
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DoomsdaysCW<p>Life 'cut short': <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Peru" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Peru</span></a>'s victims of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ForcedSterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ForcedSterilization</span></a> seek amends</p><p>Story by Agence France-Presse, 2/12/2025</p><p>LIMA — "Florentina Loayza was 19 and mother to an infant when she was sterilized by agents of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PeruvianGovernment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PeruvianGovernment</span></a>, against her will.</p><p>"Decades later, the 46-year-old <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/IndigenousWoman" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>IndigenousWoman</span></a> is still fighting for an apology and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/reparations" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>reparations</span></a> along with thousands of others robbed of their fertility in a 1990s state campaign condemned by the United Nations.<br />'My life was cut short,' Loayza told Agence France-Presse, recounting how her partner abandoned her over the procedure, which also left her with lasting pain.</p><p>"'On the outside, we look fine, but inside we are withering,' she said of the estimated 270,000 women who, like her, were coerced, pressured or deceived into surgery to have their fallopian tubes tied.</p><p>"Eighteen women died, according to official data, during the campaign that marked the final years of then-President <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AlbertoFujimori" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AlbertoFujimori</span></a>'s 1990-2000 rule.</p><p>"His government said it had offered sterilization as part of a family planning project, but the UN women's rights committee said in a report last October the state had carried out a 'systematic and generalized attack against rural and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Indigenous" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Indigenous</span></a> women.'</p><p>"It said the procedures were carried out without <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/InformedConsent" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>InformedConsent</span></a> from victims who were often poorly educated and did not understand Spanish, the language of officialdom in Peru.</p><p>"'It's not something that was done in the cities... but in a specific (rural) area as a way of fighting poverty so that the poorest women didn't reproduce,' Leticia Bonifaz, who was a member of the UN committee, told AFP.</p><p>"She said it was the biggest known case of forced sterilization in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LatinAmerica" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LatinAmerica</span></a>."</p><p>Read more:<br /><a href="https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/world/life-cut-short-perus-victims-of-forced-sterilization-seek-amends/ar-AA1yTNBf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">msn.com/en-ph/news/world/life-</span><span class="invisible">cut-short-perus-victims-of-forced-sterilization-seek-amends/ar-AA1yTNBf</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PeruPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PeruPol</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/ReproductiveAutonomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ReproductiveAutonomy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Sterilization</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Genocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Genocide</span></a></p>
DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ForcedSterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ForcedSterilization</span></a> is a worldwide problem!</p><p>As <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Japan" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Japan</span></a> starts compensation payments, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ForcedSterilisation" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ForcedSterilisation</span></a> continues around the world</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NonConsensual" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NonConsensual</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sterilisation" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>sterilisation</span></a> of those considered genetically inferior persists in some parts of the world today </p><p>by Ewan Bolton, 18 February 2025 </p><p>"Just last week, in the Miyagi prefecture of Japan, the local governor met victims of an official eugenics policy to apologise for the suffering they underwent.</p><p>"'On behalf of the prefecture, I would like to offer my heartfelt apologies for the immense suffering caused to the 900 (victims),' said Murai Yoshihiro while lowering his head.</p><p>"For many, the words 'forced sterilisation' bring to mind <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NaziGermany" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NaziGermany</span></a> and the devastating <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/eugenic" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>eugenic</span></a> policies pursued by <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/fascist" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>fascist</span></a> regimes in the 1930s and 1940s. But the non-consensual sterilisation of those considered genetically inferior continued through the 20th century and persists in some parts of the world today. </p><p>"In January, victims of Japan’s forced sterilisation programme were finally able to apply for compensation for the first time. Between 1948 and 1996, at least 16,500 people were forcibly sterilised in Japan under the country’s <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/EugenicProtectionLaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>EugenicProtectionLaw</span></a>. Nearly 60,000 more underwent <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/abortions" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>abortions</span></a> without, or with only dubious consent. Most were mentally handicapped people or those with hereditary diseases.</p><p>"As Japan finally addresses this legacy, victims of forced sterilisation in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Peru" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Peru</span></a> are still fighting for compensation after 370,000 people were sterilised in what the UN has described as a potential crime against humanity. And in the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UnitedStates" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>UnitedStates</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/India" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>India</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/China" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>China</span></a> and parts of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Europe" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Europe</span></a>, non-consensual sterilisations continue to this day. </p><p>"As with the Nazis, almost all cases can be traced back to the discredited <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/PseudoScience" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PseudoScience</span></a> of eugenics which was developed in the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UK" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>UK</span></a> at around the turn of the last century and had many supporters, including <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WinstonChurchill" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WinstonChurchill</span></a>. </p><p>"Japan’s Eugenic Protection Law was introduced in the wake of World War II. It granted medical institutions the right to administer sterilisations and abortions without the consent of patients. Of the 25,000 people sterilised under the programme, according to government figures only 8,000 gave consent. The legitimacy of the consent in these cases is disputed. </p><p>"A large number of the victims were children, some as young as nine years old. In Miyagi prefecture, in the northwest of the main island, more than half of the 859 sterilised between 1963 and 1981 were under the age of 18. </p><p>"At a press conference last month in Hyogo prefecture, a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DeafWoman" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DeafWoman</span></a>, now in her 80s, described the emotional pain of being given an abortion without her consent. 'I was taken to the hospital, and I thought I would be going to the general medicine department. I was very surprised because I was taken to the gynaecology department … I am unable to forget what happened at that time'.</p><p>"In her prefecture alone, there are '14 or 15 other [<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DeafPeople" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DeafPeople</span></a>] who suffered harm' that are known about, 'but there are undoubtedly more', said Yoshimichi Hongo, chairman of the Hyogo Prefecture Association for the Deaf."</p><p>Read more:<br /><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/as-japan-starts-compensation-payments-forced-sterilisation/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">telegraph.co.uk/global-health/</span><span class="invisible">women-and-girls/as-japan-starts-compensation-payments-forced-sterilisation/</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WorldPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WorldPol</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/DisabledPeople" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DisabledPeople</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ReproductiveAutonomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ReproductiveAutonomy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Sterilization</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Genocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Genocide</span></a></p>
DoomsdaysCW<p>Not just in the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/UnitedStates" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>UnitedStates</span></a>... </p><p>Class-action authorized for <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ForcedSterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ForcedSterilization</span></a> of multiple <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Atikamekw" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Atikamekw</span></a> women in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Quebec" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Quebec</span></a></p><p>February 24, 2025</p><p>"The Quebec Court of Appeal is authorizing a class-action for forced sterilization of multiple Atikamekw women in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JolietteQuebec" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>JolietteQuebec</span></a>. Previously, the class-action was just against three physicians, but now includes a regional health authority."</p><p>Watch:<br /><a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/videos/class-action-authorized-for-forced-sterilization-of-multiple-atikamekw-women-in-quebec/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">aptnnews.ca/videos/class-actio</span><span class="invisible">n-authorized-for-forced-sterilization-of-multiple-atikamekw-women-in-quebec/</span></a><br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CanadaPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>CanadaPol</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/ReproductiveAutonomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ReproductiveAutonomy</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NativeAmericanWomen" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NativeAmericanWomen</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Sterilization</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Genocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Genocide</span></a></p>
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>"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 'This isn’t the America I know.' 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>"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>"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 'eugenics' 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 'breed out' undesirable traits in order to create a society with a 'superior' 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 'undesirable' population, since ending a woman’s reproductive capabilities meant that she would no longer be able to contribute to the population.</p><p>"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 'feeble minded woman' 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 'being swamped with incompetence…Three generations of imbeciles is enough.' The Court has never explicitly overturned <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BuckVersusBell" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BuckVersusBell</span></a>.</p><p>"California’s '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AsexualizationActs" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AsexualizationActs</span></a>' 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, '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>.'</p><p>"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 '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaOperaci%C3%B3n" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LaOperación</span></a> (The Operation)' among Puerto Ricans. </p><p>"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 '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MississippiAppendectomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>MississippiAppendectomy</span></a>'. </p><p>"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>"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 />'volunteered' 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 'consent' 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 'personal responsibility,' 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."</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>
DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ForcedSterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ForcedSterilization</span></a> of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DisabledPeople" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DisabledPeople</span></a> Isn’t a Relic of the Past </p><p>In a majority of states, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/eugenics" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>eugenics</span></a>-era laws still let doctors sterilize disabled patients against their will.</p><p>by Julia Métraux<br />February 27, 2025</p><p>"'In order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence,' Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote for the majority in 1927’s Buck v. Bell, the state could—and should—'prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.' Forced sterilization, the court held, was not only legal but laudable.</p><p>"In 1924, 17-year-old Carrie Buck was institutionalized, having been deemed 'feebleminded' on the grounds of 'promiscuous' behavior. In reality, Buck was raped by her foster family’s nephew. Three years later, with the Court’s blessing, Virginia’s 'State Colony of Epileptics and Feeble Minded' sterilized Buck against her will. The decision, passed at the height of the 20th-century eugenics movement, has never been overturned.</p><p>"'There’s a very different standard being applied to disabled people’s autonomy.'</p><p>"To this day, 31 states and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WashingtonDC" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WashingtonDC</span></a>, still have laws on the books that allow for the practice—and just two, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Alaska" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Alaska</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NorthCarolina" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NorthCarolina</span></a>, have laws that fully ban the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nonconsensual" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>nonconsensual</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>sterilization</span></a> of disabled people, according to a 2022 report from the National Women’s Law Center. There’s no official account of just how many disabled people have been sterilized under those laws.</p><p>"Some of these laws aren’t even that old. In 2019, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Iowa" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Iowa</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Nevada" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Nevada</span></a> passed new forced sterilization laws that applied to people under <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/guardianship" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>guardianship</span></a>. Both bills passed unanimously, and the end result is consistent with laws on the books in other states. There was no discourse among politicians—let alone objections—about the ethics of sterilizing disabled people without their consent.</p><p>"Sterilization and Social Justice Lab co-director and founder Alexandra Minna Stern said that early IQ tests, which sought to measure intelligence in part on the basis of class- and culture-based questions involving Beethoven’s sonatas, the early United States, and college athletics, were 'used to categorize people who would then be targeted for sterilization,' generally those who were '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/marginalized" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>marginalized</span></a> or maligned in some way': in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/California" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>California</span></a> and the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Southwest" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Southwest</span></a>, often <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MexicanAmericans" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>MexicanAmericans</span></a>; nationwide, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Black" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Black</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Indigenous" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Indigenous</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/poorer" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>poorer</span></a> white Americans, particularly women. The people behind the tests, Stern says, were 'white, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/elite" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>elite</span></a> men who wanted to create a certain type of society in their own image.'</p><p>"NWLC senior counsel for health equity and justice Ma’ayan Anafi, who is also disabled, told Mother Jones that “forced sterilization laws are a really powerful example of how violations of disabled people’s bodies and rights are baked into our legal system today.”</p><p>Read more:<br /><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/forced-sterilization-eugenics-scotus-state-laws/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">motherjones.com/politics/2025/</span><span class="invisible">02/forced-sterilization-eugenics-scotus-state-laws/</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></p>
DoomsdaysCW<p>[Thread] So, what's on my mind tonight? A lot of things, but especially the topic of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Sterilization</span></a> -- both voluntary and involuntary. As we slide further into <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fascism</span></a>, control over womens' bodies and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ReproductiveRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ReproductiveRights</span></a> are becoming moot points -- as some in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Trump</span></a>'s administration are calling for <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ForcedSterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ForcedSterilization</span></a> of certain people, and yet, hypocritically, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/MAGA" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>MAGA</span></a> types are making <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DeathThreats" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>DeathThreats</span></a> against women who chose sterilization. This is beyond messed up, but par for the course for Fascism. [See <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CharacteristicsOfFascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>CharacteristicsOfFascism</span></a> Number 5: Rampant <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Sexism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Sexism</span></a> -- <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LawrenceBritt" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LawrenceBritt</span></a>]. Read on...<br /><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>USPol</span></a></p>
Matti Järvinen<p>A Trump State Department official has, on a number of occasions, called for the sterilization of “low-IQ trash,” a new report has revealed. </p><p>Darren Beattie has been Trump speech writer but was fired for speaking in a white nationalist rally. Now he's acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior role that represents American foreign policy to the world.</p><p>Next up, concentration camps?</p><p><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/darren-beattie-trump-state-department-b2696297.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">independent.co.uk/news/world/a</span><span class="invisible">mericas/us-politics/darren-beattie-trump-state-department-b2696297.html</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sterilization</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>racism</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History January 1, 1934: A "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring" went into effect in Nazi Germany. The Eugenics research that Hitler used to justify torture and genocide was inspired by similar research from the U.S. The American eugenics movement originated in the 1880s, from the biological determinist ideas of Francis Galton. He believed that selective breeding could improve the human race and allow them to direct their own evolution. The U.S. eugenics movement was heavily funded by the Carnegie Institution, Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune. Biologist Charles B. Davenport founded the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) in 1911. The ERO trained field workers, who they sent to study people in mental hospitals and orphanages across the U.S. Davenport and others began to lobby for solutions to the problem of the "unfit." They lobbied for immigration restrictions and sterilization. Some even promoted the idea of extermination, well before Hitler became known for it. Some well-known eugenicists of the early 20th century included Alexander Graham Bell, Luther Burbank and Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. The eugenics movement tended to target the poor, people with disabilities and mentally illness, and specific communities of color as “unfit” for society. Their solutions included forced sterilization, which continued in the U.S. until as recently as 2010. From 1997-2010, California performed nonconsensual sterilizations on roughly 1,400 women prisoners. From 1929-1973, North Carolina sterilized the third highest number of people in the United States, roughly 7,600 people, predominantly African American women. </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/eugenics" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>eugenics</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>sterilization</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sexism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>sexism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ableism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ableism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/racism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>racism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/nazis" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>nazis</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/facism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>facism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/hitler" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>hitler</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/genocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>genocide</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/classism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>classism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/francisgalton" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>francisgalton</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/carnegie" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>carnegie</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/rockefeller" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>rockefeller</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/margaretsanger" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>margaretsanger</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History February 20, 1905: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts. There were lots of problems early on with the vaccine. For one, they reused needles, causing the transfer of syphilis from infected to uninfected people. They also had problems with bacterial contamination of the vaccine that made some people sick. On the other hand, because of global mandatory vaccination programs, the disease was eradicated in 1977, the only human disease to be completely wiped out. By the mid-1950s, over 2 million people were dying worldwide annually. </p><p>With respect to personal freedom, the Court ruled in Jacobson that individual liberty is not absolute and is subject to the state’s use of police power. Consequently, Jacobson has been invoked in other Supreme Court cases to justify police power. The ruling led to a mobilization of the anti-vaccination movement and the creation of the Anti-Vaccination League of America. The Jacobson ruling was later invoked to support forced sterilization of those with intellectual disabilities (Buck v Bell, 1927); the federal partial abortion ban (Gonzales v Carhart, 2007); drug testing of students (Veronica School District v Acton, 1995); and, most recently, COVID mitigation mandates, like face masks and stay-at-home orders.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/workingclass" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>workingclass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SCOTUS" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SCOTUS</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/vaccination" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>vaccination</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mandates" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>mandates</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/smallpox" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>smallpox</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/publichealth" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>publichealth</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/covid" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>covid</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/COVID19" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>COVID19</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/masking" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>masking</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>sterilization</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/eugenics" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>eugenics</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/antivax" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>antivax</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/police" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>police</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/privacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>privacy</span></a></p>
MikeDunnAuthor<p>Today in Labor History February 20, 1905: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts. There were lots of problems early on with the vaccine. For one, they reused needles, causing the transfer of syphilis from infected to uninfected people. They also had problems with bacterial contamination of the vaccine that made some people sick. On the other hand, because of global mandatory vaccination programs, the disease was eradicated in 1977, the only human disease to be completely wiped out. By the mid-1950s, over 2 million people were dying worldwide annually. </p><p>With respect to personal freedom, the Court ruled in Jacobson that individual liberty is not absolute and is subject to the state’s use of police power. Consequently, Jacobson has been invoked in other Supreme Court cases to justify police power. The ruling led to a mobilization of the anti-vaccination movement and the creation of the Anti-Vaccination League of America. The Jacobson ruling was later invoked to support forced sterilization of those with intellectual disabilities (Buck v Bell, 1927); the federal partial abortion ban (Gonzales v Carhart, 2007); drug testing of students (Veronica School District v Acton, 1995); and, most recently, COVID mitigation mandates, like face masks and stay-at-home orders.</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WorkingClass" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WorkingClass</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LaborHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>LaborHistory</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/smallpox" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>smallpox</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/COVID19" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>COVID19</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/vaccination" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>vaccination</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/vaccine" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>vaccine</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SCOTUS" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SCOTUS</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/liberty" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>liberty</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/mandates" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>mandates</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/masks" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>masks</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sterilization" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>sterilization</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ableism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ableism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/eugenics" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>eugenics</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/abortion" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>abortion</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/antivax" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>antivax</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/antiabortion" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>antiabortion</span></a></p>
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