As California prepares to pay reparations to the people who were sterilized in public hospitals and other state institutions by force or deception, the number of the compensated won’t be very high. That’s not because the state wronged only a few people by legalizing these eugenics-inspired medical injuries, but because it waited so long to do the right thing that most of the victims are no longer alive.
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Ours wasn’t the only state to embark on a campaign of involuntary sterilization; such efforts swept the nation during the early and mid-20th century. But California was especially prolific and persistent at it. A third of the 60,000 forced sterilizations nationwide occurred in this state, creating a particularly heavy burden of despicable acts to discharge. And to our shame here at The Times, our publisher during a good part of this time supported eugenics. Regular columns extolled the effort.What could be worse?
Los Angeles County played a particularly sordid role during the 1970s, at a time when you would have thought people were long past this kind of racism. Spanish-speaking women who gave birth at L.A. County-USC Medical Center were misled — such as being told tubal ligation was easily reversible — or sometimes intimidated into agreeing to sterilization, which was commonly practiced on those who were undergoing a Cesarean section. Some were told that this needed to be done lest their children become a burden to the state. After a whistleblower doctor provided documentation, a class-action suit was filed; the judge ruled against the women, saying it was a simple communication breakdown. Black women were mistreated at the hospital as well, according to credible accounts; a story in the New York Times describes a case in which a resident withheld pain medication from a Black woman in labor unless she agreed to sterilization.Are you ready for the brave world of Medicare for all? The progressive movement and eugenics....
