In the effort to erase physical and mental “deficiencies”, a law was passed by the Supreme Court of the United States to legalize forced or “compulsory” sterilization, against those who were deemed unfit to reproduce. This case — Buck v. Bell — triggered the violation of the rights of an estimated 70,000 Americans, of all sexes. 

This need to render certain individuals unable to reproduce stemmed from the belief and the ideology of Eugenics. It theorizes that the evolution of humans can be made perfect through the selective breeding (or lack thereof ) of different populations, in order to breed out defective qualities. One of these acclaimed qualities was called “feeblemindedness” — a classification given to those who had abnormal behavior and low IQ test scores — which was the main justification against a young woman, Carrie Buck, in the court case to legalize forced sterilization in the year 1927. 

Carrie Buck was a young woman who was put into the Virginia State Colony for epilepsy and feeblemindedness, after she was abandoned by her foster family due to her pregnancy as a result of rape. Upon seeing her state, Dr. Albert Priddy considered her the perfect cover to further his eugenic beliefs by way of forced sterilizations. Buck’s circumstances were optimal for Dr. Priddy to manipulate, as she had already been accused of feeblemindedness, her mother was also considered feebleminded, and Buck had been impregnated out of wedlock. Such were the conditions needed for Buck v. Bell to end the way it did—with thousands of people no longer able to reproduce, despite their personal wishes.

After Buck’s sterilization, which commenced soon after the trial, there was a domino effect throughout the U.S., as more and more “feebleminded” people were put into institutions and forced or coerced into agreeing to go through with the procedure. Higher percentages of these patients were women rather than men. In particular, women of color fell victim to this more often than white women. Between 1964 and 1966 in North Carolina, 64.8% of those who were sterilized by the eugenicists were African-American women. Other demographic groups who could not escape such treatment included disabled persons, whether mental or physical, “promiscuous” women, immigrants, poor people and minorities.

Forced sterilization remains a legal practice in the U.S. to this day. One recent case was the case of Kelli Dillon, who was a resident of the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. She was 24 when her surgeon decided that she was unfit to reproduce and sterilized her without her consent and knowledge. She asked the doctor to find cancerous cells, and if he did, he had the permission to operate. After the procedure, the surgical team did not tell her she had been sterilized. It was only after fighting the prison staff for her medical records, supported by a lawyer from Justice Now, that she was able to realize that her reproductive abilities had simply been stripped away from her. Dillin is now an advocate for violence prevention and intervention.

The main source of the issue here is that some people will hold the idea that they are better and above others, and when they are given the power that comes with a position of authority, they are able to excise their prejudices against those who are powerless against them. The eugenicists believed that by breeding out undesirable qualities, they would be helping future generations of humans, who would be considered “perfect” and “without defect”. 

This belief led to the destruction and devastation of many lives, as they were reckoned unworthy to reproduce, without a fair trial, or without a trial at all. 

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Sources : 

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/07/469478098/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations#:~:text=In%201927%2C%20the%20U.S.%20Supreme,deemed%20to%20be%20%22feebleminded.%22

https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism#:~:text=Eugenicists%20worldwide%20believed%20that%20they,by%20them%20to%20be%20unfit.

https://givingcompass.org/article/forced-sterilization-is-still-legal-in-the-u-s#:~:text=Forced%20sterilization%20remains%20legal%20today,Bell.

https://origins.osu.edu/read/sterilization-carrie-buck?language_content_entity=en

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/19/california-forced-sterilization-prison-survivors-reparations

https://www.instagram.com/justicenoworg/?hl=en

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