Sterilization Laws Of The United States

groups of people. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that federal legislation passed a sterilization policy

In Pages 11 and 12 in Laura Hildebrand's book Unbroken she talks about eugenics in the way that America was infatuated with eugenics. Eugenics promised strengthening of the human race by taking out people that were unfit. One of the tools of eugenics was sterilization which were procedures that rendered people unable to reproduce . when Louie the main character of Laura's book, was around his teenage years the state in which he lived California, Was overwhelmed with eugenics and ended up sterilizing around 20,000 people. As you can see why Louie, a troubled teenager, who never really was the type to make the honor roll, had a minority background, and was a notorious troublemaker may have had a reason to fear his life. Once he realized what he was risking he

Forced sterilization and Eugenics are terms you would associate with Hitler's heinous World War II crimes. Those terms were not isolated to war time Europe. From 1929 until 1977 Eugenics was a terrible part of North Carolina History that used selective breeding to extinguish lower class mentality and guarantee future generations. The State is trying to make amends to the victims of the past. For almost 50 years over 7,600 victims were evaluated harshly and then coerced or sterilized against their will. Eugenics scientists have used this method to target what they consider as the “undesirables,” mainly unwed, black females, and also the mentally disabled in North Carolina. This was done under the pretense to make future American generations stronger and smarter. Eugenics still negatively affects the people of North Carolina today.

The idea of eugenics made it possible for involuntary sterilization. In order to improve the human race, it meant regulating reproduction. 1907 Indiana passed to sterilize the mentally insane and inmates. Their plan was to eliminate “defective” genes. By 1960 63,000 people were involuntary

In the state of Kansas between 1913 and 1961, Kansas practiced forced sterilization on mentally unstable women.” In addition to laws regarding sterilization, several marriage restriction bills were proposed in Kansas as part of the eugenics movement. Although they were never enacted as state law, marriage bills were proposed in 1915, 1917, and 1927, demonstrating the popularity of eugenic ideals.” (University of Vermont…Kansas). Dr. F. Hoyt Pilcher performed 150 sterilization in the Kansas State Home of the Feebleminded. Between the years 1913 and 1916 there were 1,274 women sterilized in Kansas. In the year 1921, sterilization in Kansas was at its all-time lowest. Between the years 1950 and 1963, sterilization in Kansas was at its peak. It is

Justice Holmes’ opinion creates a picture of negative eugenics which makes this case a pinnacle in coerced sterilization discourse. Written in 1927, this opinion is the only primary source on this list, with the exception of the opinion by Justice Douglas concerning Skinner v Oklahoma. It is also important to note that this opinion is the only source advocating for coerced sterilization.

The American eugenics movement is characterized by the implementation of sterilization laws in over 30 states that led to over 60,000 sterilizations of those deemed “disabled” by the regulating entities. This movement began in the early 1900’s and many argue that this movement was the base for eugenics programs all over the world, including the infamous eugenics movement in Germany. Proponents of this program believed that the

In England, which gave birth to the eugenics movement, it is interesting to note that sterilization laws never took hold. Bertrand Russel, a British philosopher at the time published Marriage and Morals (1929) in which he wrote “I say only that our scientific knowledge at present is not adequate for this purpose, and that it is very dangerous when a community allows its moral reprobations to masquerade in the guise of science, as is undoubtedly happening

    When it came to the topic of immigration, nativists largely won during the 1920s. In response to nativist demands, the government introduced literacy tests in 1917. This measure to restrict immigration helped pave the way for even more strict regulations in the 1920s. Beginning in 1920, the government began to introduce quotas to further regulate immigration. While President Wilson was opposed to such regulations, newly elected President Harding was in favor of them. Under Harding, quotas became increasingly strict over the first half of the decade, culminating with the Immigration Act of 1924. The Act restricted anyone who was ineligible for becoming a citizen of the United States from even immigrating into the county. People of Asian descent, for instance, were previously restricted from becoming US citizens and were therefore unable to even immigrate into the country under the Act. Because of these restrictions, immigration rates plummeted. Nativism was rampant in

In California, the state with a eugenic programs so intense that it even inspired the sterilization programs in Nazi Germany, the racist controlling image of the reckless breeder was even more pronounced. The Eugenics program of California is reported to have been responsible for 20,000 eugenic sterilizations taking place in state institutions, a staggering number in comparison to the total recorded eugenic sterilizations in the United states which is reported to be 60,000 including California. Mexican American women were possibly one of the greatest targets of California’s Eugenics program which described Mexican Americans as “the states foremost racial problem” (Lira and Stern 15). A 1930 California population census found Mexican Americans

After the most widely known court case in the United States, Roe v. Wade (1973), a woman had a right to have a legal abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy (The National Right to Life Committee, inc., 2014). Legislation decided that States were able to regulate abortion into the second trimester, only to reasonable promote the interest of the women 's health. The third trimester was the first time the state was able to say no to protect the life of the fetus (Arrigo & Waldman, 2014).

Part Two covers the years 1900-1950. It describes the rise in popularity of eugenics, and the resurgence of physical therapies and remedies for mental disorders. Whitaker stated that the rise of eugenics caused a degradation in moral treatment of mentally ill patients, and eventually gave way to forced sterilization of patients deemed to be mentally incapacitated to prevent the spreading of the genetic disorder of insanity. The American public as a whole seemed to embrace forced sterilization by the 1920’s.

The issue of abortion is notoriously controversial. Since the Supreme Court’s 1992 ruling in Casey v. Planned Parenthood, states have enacted different restrictions on the procedure. These restrictions vary from state to state. Nineteen states currently have laws prohibiting partial-birth abortion, and forty-one states strictly prohibit abortions except in cases of life-endangerment. One particularly incendiary area of abortion law is that of public funding. However, as of this year there are only seventeen states that cover abortion procedures through public funding. In this paper we will discuss federal abortion legislation, while describing the laws and political ideologies of the following states: Texas, California, New

Sterilization "on eugenic grounds" (Lombardo 1) was not legalized until 1907 in Indiana, but doctors across the nation practiced the procedure illegally before even then. Generally, the patient didn't know about the sterilization until after the act was done, at which point they were informed of their "feeblemindedness" or other social disorder. Within 17 years of the law being instated, a recorded 3000 people were sterilized, and thousands more suspected off the record. The range of reasons for being sterilized was infinite, ranging from genuine mental disorders such as schizophrenia, to things as pointless as "excessive masturbation" (Selden

Under this law, no recorded sterilizations occurred. In 1929, a modified eugenics law was adopted. Under this law, 49 people were sterilized under the authority of the administration of the institutions. The supreme court ruled this law unconstitutional in 1933 citing the absence of a public hearing notice or standards for appeal. The law was modified and also called for the creation of a North Carolina Eugenics Board. It consisted of three state officials, one representative of a mental health institution and one representative of the State Hospital in Raleigh. The board’s duties were to “review all cases involving the sterilization of mentally diseased, feeble-minded, or epileptic patients, inmates, or non-institutionalized individuals” (North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources). Over the next forty-one years, more than 7,500 sterilizations were carried out under this law. The state ceased this process in 1974 and the Eugenics Commission was subsequently abolished in 1977 ("Eugenics Board of North Carolina", 2017).