Raskin brings up a truly horrifying scenario

[BumRushDaShow]

46. "Virginia sterilized thousands in the last century"

It wasn't just in "the last century", it was a mere 8 years ago in VA (with a 2014 plea deal vasectomy - a rare imposition on a male) and the allegations of "immigrant sterilization operations" carried out by ICE, just 2 years ago in Georgia in 2020.

But he is correct that in the prior century, a number of states engaged in Eugenics -

Forced sterilization policies in the US targeted minorities and those with disabilities – and lasted into the 21st century


An operation taking place in 1941 on South Side of Chicago. Library of Congress

Alexandra Minna Stern, University of Michigan

In August 1964, the North Carolina Eugenics Board met to decide if a 20-year-old Black woman should be sterilized. Because her name was redacted from the records, we call her Bertha.

She was a single mother with one child who lived at the segregated O'Berry Center for African American adults with intellectual disabilities in Goldsboro. According to the North Carolina Eugenics Board, Bertha had an IQ of 62 and exhibited “aggressive behavior and sexual promiscuity.” She had been orphaned as a child and had a limited education. Likely because of her “low IQ score,” the board determined she was not capable of rehabilitation.

Instead the board recommended the “protection of sterilization” for Bertha, because she was “feebleminded” and deemed unable to “assume responsibility for herself” or her child. Without her input, Bertha’s guardian signed the sterilization form.


A pamphlet extolling the benefit of selective sterilization published by the Human Betterment League of North Carolina, 1950. North Carolina State Documents Collection/State Library of North Carolina

Bertha’s story is one of the 35,000 sterilization stories we are reconstructing at the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab. Our interdisciplinary team explores the history of eugenics and sterilization in the U.S. using data and stories. So far, we have captured historical records from North Carolina, California, Iowa and Michigan.

https://ihpi.umich.edu/news/forced-sterilization-policies-us-targeted-minorities-and-those-disabilities-and-lasted-21st

I won't even go into the "Norplant" fiasco (note the below happened when Pete Wilson (R) was governor of CA) -

Implanted Birth Control Device Renews Debate Over Forced Contraception

By Tamar Lewin

Jan. 10, 1991

Less than a month after the Federal Government approved a new birth control device that is implanted under a woman's skin, the long-lasting device is the focus of a renewed debate over forced contraception. A county judge in California has ordered that a woman convicted of child abuse use the device for three years as a condition of probation. Experts in medical ethics say that because of the ease in using the device, which is not yet on the market, other judges may be tempted to order its use in cases where women are seen as unfit to be parents.

The device, Norplant, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 10 and was widely hailed as a "dream method" of birth control because it could easily be implanted in a woman's arm, remaining effective for up to five years. The device, the first substantially new contraceptive in 25 years, consists of several soft, matchstick-size rubber tubes that are placed under the skin of the woman's upper arm, where they release the female hormone progestin, one of the components of birth control pills. With the exception of sterilization, Norplant is expected to be the most effective contraceptive, because it does not depend on a person's remembering to use it.

"Norplant presents a special temptation to judges because it's so long lasting and doesn't require any cooperation after it's implanted, and can be monitored by a parole officer just by looking at the woman's arm," said Dr. George Annas, director of the program on law, medicine and ethics at the Boston University School of Medicine. "I think we're going to see more of these cases. It's kind of amazing that this has happened already, when hardly any physicians even know how to implant this thing." In the California case, Tulare County Superior Court Judge Howard Broadman last week ordered the implantation of the device in Darlene Johnson, a 27-year-old mother of four who pleaded guilty to beating two of her children with a belt.

The order was issued at her sentencing, without notice to either the woman or her lawyer, Charles Rothbaum. Judge Broadman is to reconsider the order at a hearing this morning on a motion filed by Mr. Rothbaum. Mr. Rothbaum said his client had been completely taken by surprise by the Judge's decision. In a plea agreement arranged earlier, Ms. Johnson was to be sentenced to one year in jail and three years of probation. He said she had agreed to the Judge's order only because she was afraid that if she refused she would go to jail for four years. Mr. Rothbaum said he did not know how much Ms. Johnson had understood about Norplant, because he was not at the hearing.

(snip)

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/10/us/implanted-birth-control-device-renews-debate-over-forced-contraception.html

I'm still waiting for a forced (vs "plea deal" ) vasectomy for abusive fathers.