How Do You Put a Price on the Loss of Autonomy From Forced Sterilization?
The Nation, November 9, 2023: How Do You Put a Price on the Loss of Autonomy From Forced Sterilization?
“Gooseberry is one of more than 20,000 people who were sterilized without consent in California. Most of these sterilizations took place between 1909 and 1979, when the state sponsored an official eugenics program that targeted people in state institutions who were deemed ‘feeble-minded’ and ‘unfit’ to reproduce. A disproportionate number of those targeted were people of color and immigrants. California was a leading proponent of eugenic policies; a third of all people sterilized under US eugenics programs lived in California. A case file for a 16-year-old girl who was sent to the Sonoma State Home quoted by the Los Angeles Times shows the criteria used to justify sterilizations in this era: ‘One of the giggling dangerous type—a delinquent sexually, morally. Forged checks, remained away from home nights.’
“In 1979, California repealed its eugenics laws, putting an end to the official program. But nonconsensual sterilizations continued in prisons. In 2013, the Center for Investigative Reporting reported that doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation performed tubal ligations on at least 148 incarcerated people from 2006 to 2010 without state-required approvals, with perhaps 100 more cases dating back to the late 1990s. The ob-gyn for California’s Valley State Prison, Dr. James Heinrich, seemed to channel the logic of an earlier era when he told CIR that the almost $150,000 the state had paid doctors to perform these improper procedures wasn’t a huge amount ‘compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children—as they procreated more.’ While Heinrich’s case has attracted attention because of these comments, he is far from the only doctor involved in the surgeries, which were performed at outside hospitals and took place as a result of a ‘massive systemic failure,’ according to Jennifer James, an associate professor at the University of California–San Francisco, who has been working with people applying for the program.
“In 2021, California lawmakers took a major step to make amends for these harms, passing a law to create a $4.5 million compensation fund for victims of state-sponsored sterilizations. California is the third state to embark on such a program, following North Carolina and Virginia. But as the deadline to apply for compensation approaches on December 31, just 108 people have been approved out of an estimated 600 victims who may still be alive. In total, 513 applications have been submitted and 358 have been denied, according to the California Victim Compensation Board, which is administering the program. About three dozen more cases are being reviewed and 12 have been closed as incomplete due to a lack of documentation. A lack of evidence showing a person was in a facility or received a sterilization is the most common reason for denial, Lynda Gledhill, the board’s chief executive, told The Nation.”
Additional reading:
Jezebel, November 7, 2023: Over 500 Survivors of Forced Sterilization Applied for Reparations. Fewer Than a Quarter Have Been Accepted.
KQED, November 1, 2023: Survivors from California’s Period of Forced Sterilization Denied Reparations
The Marshall Project, July 14, 2023: While Doing Time in a California Prison, I Was Given a Hysterectomy Without My Consent
The Nation, January 3, 2023: Sterilization Survivors Who Won Reparations Now Face Another Challenge—Getting It
