What is Forced Sterilization?

1 9 0 7 : Indiana enacts first eugenics sterilization law

Sterilization made legal for “criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles” in state custody. California follows suit in 1909 1 9 2 7 : Buck v. Bell Supreme Court case

Court upholds decision to sterilize ‘unfit’ people. Buck was institutionalized and deemed “promiscuous” and a moron

A Painful Past

1 9 3 0 - 7 0: An estimated 1/3 of Puerto Rican women sterilized

1 9 6 0 - 7 0: Thousands of Native American women sterilized under the Indian Health Service 1 9 7 5: Civil rights lawsuit by Mexican immigrant women in LA against medical coercion.

1 9 7 0 s: Repealing of many sterilizatio n laws

2 0 2 0 : Whistleblower allegations of ICE detention center forced sterilization

1 9 9 7 - 2 0 1 0: Unwanted sterilization performed on approx. 1,400 women in California prisons