Aggregated News
The recent revelation that 148 female prisoners in two California institutions were sterilized between 2006 and 2010 is another example of the state's long history of reproductive injustice and the ongoing legacy of eugenics. The abuse took place in violation of state and federal laws, and with startling disregard for patient autonomy and established protocols of informed consent.
In the past, sterilization of vulnerable populations in the name of "human betterment" was carried out with legal authority and the backing of political elites. What current and past practices share is the assumption that some women by virtue of their class position, sexual behavior, or ethnic identity are socially unfit to reproduce and parent.
The unauthorized sterilization of women in prison was facilitated, as the federal courts have recognized, by a combination of inhumane practices, overcrowding, bureaucratic inconsistencies, and medical neglect. From the torturous conditions in the state's Security Housing Units, to the exposure of prisoners to life-threatening illnesses, and the trampling of women prisoners' reproductive rights, California rivals many Southern states in penal cruelty.
It's a heartening sign that many...
In the past, sterilization of vulnerable populations in the name of "human betterment" was carried out with legal authority and the backing of political elites. What current and past practices share is the assumption that some women by virtue of their class position, sexual behavior, or ethnic identity are socially unfit to reproduce and parent.
The unauthorized sterilization of women in prison was facilitated, as the federal courts have recognized, by a combination of inhumane practices, overcrowding, bureaucratic inconsistencies, and medical neglect. From the torturous conditions in the state's Security Housing Units, to the exposure of prisoners to life-threatening illnesses, and the trampling of women prisoners' reproductive rights, California rivals many Southern states in penal cruelty.
It's a heartening sign that many...