Forced Sterilization in the USA
WMST 582, Spring 2021
Dear Reader,
4. What is Forced Sterilization?
My name is Nikki Loseff and I am a student at SDSU engaging in activism for my Women’s Studies course: Scientific Feminism and Activism. This class has opened my eyes to the overt and hidden gendered nature of everything in our lives, especially science and technology. Here I will share what I’ve discovered about forced sterilization, a major human rights issue I naively believed only occurred outside the US. In this zine, I will share what I have learned with hopes of spreading awareness of forced sterilization in the US and encouraging further activism.
5. History of Sterilization in the US 6. Who Cares? 7. Government Population Control 8. Sterilization in Prison 9. Sterilization of Disabled People 10.Can You Spell Injustice? 11. Resources 12. References
What is forced sterilization?
Forced sterilization is the practice of involuntary or coerced removal of a person’s reproductive capacity through surgery. It reflects a destructive power dynamic of one group over another through the belief that particular people are less worthy of reproducing and forming a family. Those targeted are typically women of color and disabled people. Sterilization is often guised as government population control programs for the betterment of a nation. Victims often are institutionalized, in prisons or hospitals where they have little options for self advocacy.
A Painful Past 1907:
1930-70 :
1975 :
2020:
Indiana enacts first eugenics sterilization law
An estimated 1/3 of Puerto Rican women sterilized
Civil rights lawsuit by Mexican immigrant women in LA against medical coercion.
Whistleblower allegations of ICE detention center forced sterilization
Sterilization made legal for “criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles” in state custody. California follows suit in 1909
1927: Buck v. Bell Supreme Court case
Court upholds decision to sterilize ‘unfit’ people. Buck was institutionalized and deemed “promiscuous” and a moron
1960-70 :
1970s :
1997-2010 :
Thousands of Native American women sterilized under the Indian Health Service
Repealing of many sterilizatio n laws
Unwanted sterilization performed on approx. 1,400 women in California prisons
Who Cares? Forced sterilization is an important cause not just for women of color. If the principle of equal rights in reproductive choice is not enough to get behind, think about the societal implications of forced sterilization. To live in a country that tolerate this practice is to normalize eugenics principles and reinforce pervasive stereotypes that carry for generations.
Government Population Control
Federally funded large scale sterilization programs have historically been carried out under the guise of “population control” programs. They assume that poverty and hunger are products of over-population rather than unequal resource distribution. Therefore, the solution is focused on shrinking poor populations instead of sharing wealth and resources. While not every case uses force, government programs tend to subsidize, pay for, or use sterilization as a tool to get their target populations to behave in certain ways. These populations are nearly always Black, Latino, or Native American and already are victims of unjust government programs such as the welfare and prison systems.
Sterilization in Prison To this day, women in prisons and detention centers are sterilized with insufficient information, improper consent, or coercion. It falls in line with US laws rooted in eugenics principles. In several states, inmates are offered reduced sentences if they agree to sterilization. Women deemed likely to return to prison are targeted for sterilization programs. The issue of consent is amplified in a space of distinct power imbalance. It is absolutely immoral to impose on individuals a choice between reproductive freedom and corporeal freedom. Furthermore, those targeted have the fewest resources and capacity for self advocacy which has allowed this power abuse to go unchecked for decades.
Sterilization of Disabled People
What does it mean to be ‘fit’ for motherhood? Who decided that some women are more deserving of autonomy than others? Women with mental and physical disabilities are subject to an unusually high rate of involuntary sterilization. The false pretense that mental disability is inheritable has also largely played into the disproportionate sterilization of the mentally ill. Current controversies surrounding sterilization of disabled people is over their decision-making power. While many cases involve parents or guardians petitioning for sterilization, it has been argued that this request is unconstitutional and violates a fundamental right against unwanted personal intrusion.
Can You Spell Injustice? ACROSS 3. voluntary agreement 8. moral principles 9. to make a person or animal unable to produce offspring DOWN 1. acronym for non-whites 2. medical operation to remove uterus 4. practiced through 'breeding out' 5. advocacy 6. maternity 7. self rule, free reign
Resources Sister Song: Strengthening and amplifying the collective voices of indigenous women and women of color to achieve reproductive justice by eradicating reproductive oppression and securing human rights. https://www.sistersong.net/reproductive-justice
The Marshall Project: Creating and sustaining a sense of urgency about criminal justice in America through accurate, fair, and impartial journalism. https://www.themarshallproject.org/?ref=nav
International Justice Resource Center: Providing victims and advocates with the practical information they need to educate themselves and protect their own and others’ rights within the international human rights framework. https://ijrcenter.org/forced-sterilization/
References • Baggaley, Kate. “America Has a Long History of Forced Sterilization.” Popular Science, 12 Sep. 2020. • Beardsley, Amanda. Women’s Studies 582. “Biomedicine Lecture.” 1 Mar. 2021, San Diego State University. Class Lecture. • Berger, Emily. “The Legal Rights of the Poor and Minority to Have Families: Judges as Family Planners, Vilification of the Poor, and Destruction of the Black Family.” Rutgers Race & the Law Review. May 2007, Vol. 8: 259–290. • Braje, Todd. Anthropology 353. “Population and the Environment.” 8 Feb. 2021, San Diego State University. Class Lecture. • Dugger, Celia W. “Relying on Hard and Soft Sells India Pushes Sterilization.” New York Times, 22 June, 2011. • Hartmann, B. “Children and bankers in Bangladesh.” Temas de Poblacion. June 1991. Vol 1(2), pp. 51–55. • Kluchin, Rebecca M. “Fit to be Tied: Sterilization and Reproductive Rights in America 1950–1980.” Rutgers University Press, 2011. • La Operación. Directed by Ana María García, Latin American Film Project, 1982. • Manian, Maya. “Immigration Detention and Coerced Sterilization: History Tragically Repeats Itself.” ACLU, 29 Sept. 2020. • Masarik, Elizabeth. “Choice, Sterilization, and Eugenics in Twentieth Century Puerto Rico.” Dig Podcast, 12 May 2019. https://digpodcast.org/2019/05/12/choice-sterilization-and-eugenics-in-twentieth-century-puerto-rico/ • Murdoch, William W. and Allan Oaten. “Population and Food: A Critique of Lifeboat Ethics.” Bioscience, 1975. Vol. 25. • No Más Bebés. Directed by Renee Tajima-Peña, Moon Canyon Films, 2016. • Perry, David M. “Our Long, Troubling History of Sterilizing the Incarcerated.” The Marshall Project, 26 Jul. 2017. • Rowlands, Sam and Amy Jean-Jacques. “Sterilization of those with intellectual disability: Evolution from non-consensual interventions to strict safeguards.” Journal of Intellectual Disabilities. 11 Dec. 2017. Vol. 23 (2): 233–249. • Stern, Alexandra. “Forced sterilization policies in the US targeted minorities and those with disabilities – and lasted into the 21st century.” University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, 23 Sept. 2020. https://ihpi.umich.edu/news/forced-sterilization-policies-us-targeted-minorities-and-those-disabilities-and-lasted-21st
