Forced Sterilizations Federal Apology Call

The forced sterilizations of tens of thousands of women in the U.S.A. for more than 60 years until the late 1970s has been apologized for by several states, and now there is a call for the Federal government to also apologize.

32 states ran eugenics programs which targeted poor women, those with disabilities, girls raped by older men, and in one North Carolinian case a 10-year-old boy. Tens of thousands of Native women were sterilized in a clear case of attempted genocide.

According to Charon Asetoyer, Comanche, chief executive officer and a founding director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center:

In the state of Virginia, there were 8,300 people who were sterilized. There were 7,600 in North Carolina.

Up to 20,000 women were sterilized in California from 1909 to 1964.

Asetoyer says that the basis of the eugenics movement was that poor people were seen as “inferior human beings who would bring down the gene pool. Native Americans in particular were seen as obstacles to the rich who wanted to control the nation’s natural resources.”

Says Andrea Carmen, executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council:

This was a concerted attack on Indian American women that constituted genocide.

Carmen says she first heard about abuses in the early 1970s, such as a woman who was unable to deliver her full-term baby — and discovered that her cervix had been sewn shut without her knowledge. Stories then emerged of Native American women and girls going in for C-sections or tonsillitis and coming out with tubal ligations.

Native American women were used in Depo-Provera trials without being informed of the risks. Those having Norplant capsules implanted in their arms were then being told that no one had the training to remove it, even when it caused complications. Women in labor were told by the Indian Health Service that they would not be helped unless they agreed to be sterilized.

In 1974, Connie Pinkerton-Uri released a study that claimed one in four Native women had been sterilized without their consent. A limited General Accounting Office study found that between 1973 and 1976 3,400 Native American women were sterilized in just four areas.

Virginia, Oregon, South Carolina and California have all formally apologized. North Carolina had the most aggressive sterilization effort and formally apologized in December 2002; it then established the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation.

Ten years later, the state appears ready to start compensating victims, with a budget appropriation to cover $50,000 for each victim, though the state legislature still has to sign off. 118 victims who are still alive have been verified. The foundation has established a toll-free number, 877-550-6013, and is hoping to hear from North Carolina victims who may now be scattered across the country.

Forced sterilizations using funds from the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity targeted poor black women and the Indian Health Service targeted Native American women — both are federal responsibilities.

Asetoyer says apologies and reparation by states are good things, but she would like to see the federal government make similar amends.

This is a huge stain on the pages of American history. These were atrocities that were committed in our communities, and there has been no acknowledgement, no apology. Why isn’t the federal government apologizing to our women? States are making restitution. The federal government should too.

Sign the petition calling for a federal apology for forced sterilizations.

Related stories:

How Much Are US Victims of Forced Sterilization Owed?

China’s “Leftover” Women

Academia’s Favorite Group of Racists Holds Annual Meeting

Picture by gennie catastrophe

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Pat B.

1:26AM PDT on Jul 1, 2012

You mean it's a culture of death that some people want to control the size of their family? What are you, some 'be fruitful and multiply' nut who isn't happy with 7 billion people but wants more to add to the 15 million children that die of starvation every year? Why? Because your god said so? A god that cruel doesn't deserve anyone's worship.

Culture of death? Life IS death. From the day you are born there is a death sentence hanging over your head. The circle of life is not just a cute saying, it's the way the entire universe functions. From the biggest star to the tiniest sub atomic material, they come into existence, remain in existence for a period of time, then they break up and become fuel for the next generation.

Oh, wait. But I guess that's not true, is it? I mean god created everything with a wave of his magic wand didn't he? Wonder why he created a world that murders so many innocent children every year. Those are god's abortions. He doesn't seem to have a problem with that, does he?

July 1
send a green star

John Z.

10:47PM PDT on Jun 30, 2012

And now it is done via propaganda - where the naive have fallen for every sort of argument which leads them into the clutches of the "culture of death"; abortion, contraception, euthanasia, sterilisation and so on. Tragic ignorance!

June 30
send a green star

Julie H.

3:42PM PDT on Jun 11, 2012

horrible.

June 11
send a green star

12:50PM PDT on Jun 11, 2012

Population

It's only fear mongering if the thought scares you. Personally, I think it's great. Take a look at this article -- this only one of many, including stats from US government reports.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/sep/03/race.world?cat=uk&type=article

"'It's my hope we can all see our state's diversity as a cause for celebration and not consternation,' said California's lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamente, a Latino."

"The United States government predicts that non-hispanic whites will become a minority in the country by 2055."

"Back in California, in a land built by immigrants, Bustamente put a positive spin on the end of the white majority: 'If there are no majorities, then there's no minorities.' "

Evelyn Mc M.

7:33AM PDT on Jun 11, 2012

Unbelievable. And yet women who WANT contraception are being denied.

7:16PM PDT on Jun 10, 2012

There is no such thing as a Native American. Everybody here migrated from someplace else.

One piece of news that will make people happy. The white people are not reproducing enough to even keep their population stable. It's shrinking, which is one reason the while ruling class in politics and everywhere else is getting very nasty right now about non-whites. They target the Latino population because it's growing fast than any other and soon they'll be the majority in America.

Bottom line, the white race is becoming extinct.

June 10
send a green star

Suzy D.

6:57PM PDT on Jun 10, 2012

Given the percentage population makeup of the US, If there is any one race which should be spared sterilisation it is the Native American people !

Jo T.

4:58PM PDT on Jun 10, 2012

I too, believe they are still conducting population control. I wish I could find the article I read years ago, about a health watch dog group and what they discovered was going on in a vaccine trial in Puerto Rico. The WHO (world Health organization) and a vaccine company were running a trial of a vaccine on young women and women of child bearing age. The watch dog group got a hold of a sample of the vaccine and tested it. In the vaccine was found pregnancy hormones. So the womens' bodies were not only building up antibodies to the virus but pregnancy hormones. If and when these women got pregnant, their very own bodies would attack the fetus.

3:36PM PDT on Jun 10, 2012

"the truth about the white supremacists come to light"

Paranoid much?

Deirdre G.

3:20PM PDT on Jun 10, 2012

thats disgusting, genocide if ever I have heard of it.... they should be compensated for the physical pain and lack of consideration shown to them, if nothing else!!