NPR reports:
North Carolina is trying to make amends for an ugly chapter in its history during which more than 7,000 people were sterilized, many against their will. At least half of states had eugenics laws, but only a handful kept their forced sterilization programs active after World War II.
Within North Carolina, one county sterilized three times more people than any other — Mecklenburg, where Charlotte is the county seat. ...
Exactly how Mecklenberg came to sterilize more than any other county has to do with the way North Carolina referred people for sterilizations. Other states left the referral process to doctors working in prisons and mental hospitals, but only North Carolina gave that power to social workers.
And the head of Mecklenberg's welfare program believed referring women for sterilization was a good option for those who had no other means of birth control at the time. ...
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Thanks to Jon Elliston for the heads-up on this story.Read the full article
North Carolina is trying to make amends for an ugly chapter in its history during which more than 7,000 people were sterilized, many against their will. At least half of states had eugenics laws, but only a handful kept their forced sterilization programs active after World War II.
Within North Carolina, one county sterilized three times more people than any other — Mecklenburg, where Charlotte is the county seat. ...
Exactly how Mecklenberg came to sterilize more than any other county has to do with the way North Carolina referred people for sterilizations. Other states left the referral process to doctors working in prisons and mental hospitals, but only North Carolina gave that power to social workers.
And the head of Mecklenberg's welfare program believed referring women for sterilization was a good option for those who had no other means of birth control at the time. ...
---
Thanks to Jon Elliston for the heads-up on this story.Read the full article
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