U.S Forced Sterilization Programs onto Children

The state of Virginia has decided to compensate the victims of the forced sterilization program implemented between the 1920s through to 1979. In all, it’s estimated that 7,325 Virginians underwent the process under the 1924 Eugenical Sterilization Act because they were deemed by the State to be “socially inadequate.” Around an estimated 65,000 forced sterilizations occurred nationwide.

A decision to compensate each person affected with $25,000 was won after a three-year fight in February.[1] But it’s little consolation to those who still recall the process and the years of wondering what it would have been like to have been a parent.

One such patient, Lewis Reynolds 86, recollects the reasoning behind his sterilization. He wished he’d had a family, and later went on to serve 30 years in the military, but as a young boy he had suffered seizures after a head injury. He was deemed unfit for parenthood. He was a teenager (13) when his forced sterilization procedure occurred.

The nature of the forced sterilizations was a program implemented by the government at the time to help create a “super-race.” Legislators right up to the White House were supportive of the cleansing, and it was considered constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1927 with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr declaring that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”[2] It’s a resolution that was used as a defense during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi doctors. [3]

Little is known about the American Eugenics movement. It wasn’t isolated to the state of Virginia; California is where the roots of it were firmly planted. Elitists and their desire for a ‘better world’ reinvented a eugenics theory founded in racist ideology.[4] From there the movement grew to incorporate those considered to be feeble minded (epileptics, mentally disabled and various other forms of medical condition).

Celia Vandegrift now 87, was a nurse who assisted in the forced sterilization program. She discussed the program openly with Al Jazeera’s America Tonight. “It’s what our legislators wanted at the time and what our bosses wanted, even the President of the United States,” Vandegrift said. “You trusted all those people, so I went right along with them…I thought, at the time, I was doing the right thing,” she continued. “I can see now that it was so wrong.”[5]

[1] (2015, February 27). Virginia to compensate victims of forced sterilizations. [Fox News]. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/27/virginia-to-compensate-victims-forced-sterilizations/

[2] Ibid.

[3] (2015, March 22). Nurses coming clean about government’s ‘Super-Race’ forced sterilizations. Retrieved from http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/03/nurses-coming-clean-about-super-race-forced-sterilizations/

[4] Black, E. (2003, September). The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics. [George Mason University]. Retrieved from http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1796

[5] Gliha, L.J. (2014, March 24). Forced sterilization nurse: ‘I can see now that it was so wrong.’ [Al-Jazeera]. Retrieved from http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/3/24/forced-sterilizationnurseicanseenowthatitwassowrong.html