Sterilization Abuse

How the Birth Control/Eugenics Movement Controlled the Reproductive Rights of Black Women

This movement was successful in controlling the reproductive choices of Black women through sterilization abuse and Norplant, a form of birth control implanted in the arm. Forced sterilizations occured in numerous ways. To start, at hospitals, doctors would require African American women to agree to sterilization before agreeing to deliver their child or to perform an abortion. Additionally, some women were forced to undergo sterilization for the sake of training new doctors. Next, many Black children were used as test subjects for Norplant. Under the guise of a school program, many young Black women were implanted with Norplant without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Lastly, many Black women underwent sterilization as they were told their welfare benefits would be taken away if they did not agree to a sterilization procedure.

STATISTICS:

• A 1973 study found that 43% of the women sterilized as part of a federally funded program were Black, yet only 33% of the patients were Black. 
• By the 1970’s Black women were sterilized at a rate of twice that of white women.
• In Relf v. Weinberger (1974), a federal district found that 100,000 to 150,000 poor women were sterilized under federally funded programs.”
• Under the Eugenics Commission of North Carolina, by 1933 7,686 sterilizations had occurred and were justified as measures to prevent the procreation of “mentally deficient persons.” Of the 7,686 about 5,000 were Black women.

Forced sterilizations during, and even after the eugenics movement were rampant. The government and society found ways to justify curtailing the growth of the Black population through language brought forth by the movement. Then society found ways to stop the procreation of African Americans– sterilization. Sterilization was carried out in both legal and illegal ways. While there was legislation passed allowing sterilization to occur, hospitals, and birth control organizations at schools did not prioritize ethics or legality when sterilizing Black women. While this was more prevalent in the 1970’s, there are still ways Black women are forced to undergo sterilization and their reproductive choices and health are affected.

Sources Used:

Burrell, Darci E. “The Norplant Solution: Norplant and the Control of African-American Motherhood,” UCLA Women’s Law Journal 5, no. 2 (Spring 1995): 401-444.

Davis, Angela. Women, Race & Class. 1St Vintage books ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1983.

Roberts, Dorothy E. Killing the Black Body : Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997.

Tiesha Rashon Peal, “The Continuing Sterilization of Undesirables in America,” Rutgers Race & the Law Review 6, no. 1 (2004): 225-246.

Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid : The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. 1St pbk.ed. New York, NY: Harlem Moon, 2008.