Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare by Johanna Schoen
Independent Weekly, The; Durham, N.C. › August 04, 2009
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Summary
In the course of her research at the North Carolina State Archives, [JOHANNA SCHOEN] gained access to an extraordinary set of records from the N.C. Eugenics Board, a state panel that approved more than 7,600 surgical sterilizations between 1929 and 1974. Individuals subjected to the procedure were deemed by the board to be "feebleminded," "moronic," "delinquent" or "promiscuous," as the administrative papers put it. Ninety-nine percent were women, and the program disproportionately targeted African Americans.
The result was "Against Their Will: North Carolina's Sterilization Programs," a five-part series published in December 2002 that finally forced this hidden history into the open. Gov. Mike Easley was quick to respond to the disclosures, issuing an apology for this "sad and regrettable chapter in the state's history" and backing a restitution program for sterilization victims that became law in August 2003. North Carolina, Schoen notes, was the first state in the country to establish such a program.See the full content of this document
Extract
Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare by Johanna Schoen
University of North Carolina Press, 331 pp., $19.95 (paperback)
On March 11, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women concluded a two-week session called to revisit the platform of the landmark 1995 wome...See the full content of this document
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