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A North Carolina state task force is holding a public listening session later this month for victims of the state’s now defunct eugenics law to come forward and share their stories. The session is part of an effort to compensate those who were forcibly sterilized decades ago. The majority of victims were poor black women, and many were minors or the victims of rape or incest.
<span style="font-size: 17pt">“<span style="font-weight: bold">The fewer black babies we have the better, that’s what some people said,” Professor Paul Lombardo told the BBC about the program. “They’re just going to end up on welfare</span>.”</span>
North Carolina is one of 32 states that passed laws that allowed the sterilization of people deemed “unfit to breed,” and ultimately took away the reproductive rights of more than <span style="font-weight: bold">60,000 people nationwide</span>. The programs targeted people deemed to be criminals, juvenile delinquents, the mentally ill, women considered to be “sexual deviants,” gay men, and people suffering from epilepsy. Those on welfare were targeted as well, <span style="color: #FF0000">especially African Americans after welfare became available to them in the 1960s, because they were seen as a drain on the system.
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<span style="font-weight: bold">Operations were often done without the victim’s knowledge</span>. Sterilization was also sometimes used as a condition for release from prison or a hospital, or as an ultimatum to cutting off benefits.
<span style="font-size: 17pt">“<span style="font-weight: bold">The fewer black babies we have the better, that’s what some people said,” Professor Paul Lombardo told the BBC about the program. “They’re just going to end up on welfare</span>.”</span>
North Carolina is one of 32 states that passed laws that allowed the sterilization of people deemed “unfit to breed,” and ultimately took away the reproductive rights of more than <span style="font-weight: bold">60,000 people nationwide</span>. The programs targeted people deemed to be criminals, juvenile delinquents, the mentally ill, women considered to be “sexual deviants,” gay men, and people suffering from epilepsy. Those on welfare were targeted as well, <span style="color: #FF0000">especially African Americans after welfare became available to them in the 1960s, because they were seen as a drain on the system.
</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Operations were often done without the victim’s knowledge</span>. Sterilization was also sometimes used as a condition for release from prison or a hospital, or as an ultimatum to cutting off benefits.
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