Category: Reproductive Justice

Reproductive Justice

Forced Sterilizations – Reading List

Newspaper Articles

“Female inmates sterilized in California prisons without approval.”  by Corey G. Johnson July 7, 2013. Reveal News. https://revealnews.org/article/female-inmates-sterilized-in-california-prisons-without-approval 

“Prison doctor blamed for excessive sterilizations: Excessive sterilizations, unhealthy methods alleged.” By Corey G. Johnson, Center for Investigative Reporting. Feb 15, 2014. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/prison-doctor-blamed-for-excessive-sterilizations-5238882.php 

“California Once Targeted Latinas for Forced Sterilization: In the 20th century, U.S. eugenics programs rendered tens of thousands of people infertile” By Nicole L. Novak and Natalie Lira. March 22, 2018. Smithsonian Magazine.  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/california-targeted-latinas-forced-sterilization-180968567/

“California to pay victims of forced, coerced sterilizations.” By Adam Beam. July 7, 2021. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/california-business-science-health-government-and-politics-bb019f426cdbb839790ac98d420a0224 

“Beautiful Strength: ‘Sobrevivir’ Pays Homage to the Women Coerced to Sterilization in 1960s and ’70s L.A.”  By Carren Jao. July 19, 2022.

https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/beautiful-strength-sobrevivir-pays-homage-to-the-women-coerced-to-sterilization-in-1960s-and-70s-l-a

“California trying to find, compensate sterilization victims.” By Adam Beam. January 2, 2023. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/politics-health-california-state-government-prisons-b560ec0a0155d8cc13730310e1073d9d 

“More pain for California’s forced sterilization patients.” By Lynn La. March 22, 2023. Cal Matters. https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2023/03/forced-sterilization-california/ 

“‘I would have been a great mom’: California finally pays reparations to woman it sterilized.” By Cayla Mihalovich. October 7, 2024. Cal Matters. https://calmatters.org/justice/2024/10/reparations-forced-sterilization/

Scholarly Presentations and Talks

“Measuring Miscegenation: Eugenics and the Legacy of Slavery” By Rana Hogarth. National Human Genome Research Institute. December 2, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjz9C5I3Psg 

“The Impact of Eugenic Legacies on Queer & Trans Communities.” In conversation with Susan Raffo, Kenyon Farrow, Sebastian Margaret, and Isa Noyola. Dismantling Eugenics: A Convening. 9/26/21 – 10/2/21 https://antieugenicsproject.org/video-archive/the-impact-of-eugenic-legacies-on-queer-trans-communities/ 

“Eugenics and Sterilization in the US: Patterns, Experiences and Legacies” By Alexandra Minna Stern. National Human Genome Research Institute. December 10, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFAQQpU0REY 

 “Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition.” ​​Liat Ben-Moshe. April 13, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofRgzXO97tQ

Books and Peer Reviewed Articles

Avila, Vrindavani, and Jennifer Elyse James. 2024. “Controlling Reproduction and Disrupting Family Formation: California Women’s Prisons and the Violent Legacy of Eugenics” Societies 14, no. 5: 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14050073 

Roberts, Dorothy. Killing the black body: Race, reproduction, and the meaning of liberty. Vintage, 2014. https://bookshop.org/p/books/killing-the-black-body-race-reproduction-and-the-meaning-of-liberty-dorothy-roberts/6723871 

Roth, Rachel, and Sara L. Ainsworth. “If they hand you a paper, you sign it: a call to end the sterilization of women in prison.” Hastings Women’s LJ 26 (2015): 7. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/Roth_If_They_Hand_You_1_15_2015.pdf 

Stanley and Smith, Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. AK Press. 2011. https://www.akpress.org/captivegenders.html 

Stern, Alexandra Minna. Eugenic nation: Faults and frontiers of better breeding in modern America. Vol. 17. Univ of California Press, 2016. https://www.ucpress.edu/books/eugenic-nation/paper 

Sufrin, Carolyn. Jailcare: Finding the safety net for women behind bars. Univ of California Press, 2017. https://www.jailcare.org/ 

Whatcott, Jess. Menace to the Future: A Disability and Queer History of Carceral Eugenics. Duke University Press, 2024. https://www.dukeupress.edu/menace-to-the-future 

“Confronting Pregnancy Criminalization: A Practical Guide for Healthcare Providers, Lawyers, Medical Examiners, Child Welfare Workers, and Policymakers.” [Formerly Known As] National Advocates for Pregnant Women. June 2022. https://www.pregnancyjusticeus.org/resources/confronting-pregnancy-criminalization-guide/ 

Appleman, Laura I. “Deviancy, Dependency, and Disability: The Forgotten History of Eugenics and Mass Incarceration.” DUKE LAW JOURNAL 68 (December 2018): 62. https://dlj.law.duke.edu/article/deviancy-dependency-and-disability-appleman-vol68-iss3/ 

Gonzales, Angela, Judy Kertész, and Gabrielle Tayac. “Eugenics as Indian Removal: Sociohistorical Processes and the De(Con)Struction of American Indians in the Southeast.” The Public Historian 29, no. 3 (January 1, 2007): 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2007.29.3.53.

Roth, Rachel. “‘She Doesn’t Deserve to Be Treated Like This’: Prisons as Sites of Reproductive Injustice.” Radical reproductive justice: Foundation, theory, practice, critique (2017): 285-301. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/Roth%202017%20Prisons%20Reproductive%20Injustice.pdf 

Whatcott, Jess. “No selves to consent: Women’s prisons, sterilization, and the biopolitics of informed consent.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 44.1 (2018): 131-153. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26553061 

Stern, Alexandra Minna, Nicole L. Novak, Natalie Lira, Kate O’Connor, Siobán Harlow, and Sharon Kardia. “California’s Sterilization Survivors: An Estimate and Call for Redress.” American Journal of Public Health 107, no. 1 (January 2017): 50–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303489.

Reproductive Justice

Together We Rise, Together We Heal Quilt

Another feature of this historic and groundbreaking bill was to memorialize the harm done by the state and educate the public on eugenics. The bill mandated the involvement and survivors and advocates, with the intent to center the needs and desires of survivors in the process. However, most felt shut out of the process; their voices left unheard. CCWP instead came together to create a memorial quilt. Titled, Together We Rise, Together We Heal, this series of quilts was created by survivors and advocates inside and outside of state prisons. It represents the healing that comes through community and the importance of centering survivors and communities as we repair past harms.

Are you interested in hosting a quilt exhibition honoring survivors of forced sterilizations?

If you and/or your organization are interested in exhibiting the quilts for an event – please fill out this intake form and you will be contacted by a CCWP member.

Reproductive Justice

Belly of the Beast

On July 13, 2021, Governor Newsom signed the California state budget which included $7.5 million to provide reparations to survivors of state sponsored forced sterilizations. California is the first state in the country to provide reparations to survivors who were sterilized while incarcerated in its women’s prisons.  Between 2006 and 2010, a state audit revealed that at least 144 people, the majority of whom identify as Black and Latinx, were illegally sterilized during labor and delivery while in custody in women’s prisons. Most of these people were never even made aware that they had been sterilized. The law provided compensation for any survivor of coercive sterilization performed on an individual under the custody and control of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after 1979. Most of these people were never even made aware that they had been sterilized. See the article Belly of the Beast: California’s dark history of forced sterilizations to learn more.

Check out the movie, Belly of the Beast: California’s dark history of forced sterilization’s, using the link below. 

Reproductive Justice

Reproductive Justice & Abolition History

On July 13, 2021, Governor Newsom signed the California state budget which included $7.5 million to provide reparations to survivors of state sponsored forced sterilizations. California is the first state in the country to provide reparations to survivors who were sterilized while incarcerated in its women’s prisons.  Between 2006 and 2010, a state audit revealed that at least 144 people, the majority of whom identify as Black and Latinx, were illegally sterilized during labor and delivery while in custody in women’s prisons. Most of these people were never even made aware that they had been sterilized. The law provided compensation for any survivor of coercive sterilization performed on an individual under the custody and control of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after 1979. Most of these people were never even made aware that they had been sterilized. See Belly of the Beast: California’s dark history of forced sterilizations to learn more.

The California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) was one of the co-sponsors of this historic bill.  We initiated a robust outreach and support campaign to reach incarcerated people, formerly incarcerated people, and family members who could be entitled to compensation/reparations under this new program.  The program was administered by the state of California’s Victims’ Compensation Board (VCB). Between 2021-2023 over 500 people applied for reparations from the state. As of today, about 120 people have received compensation.

Another feature of this historic and groundbreaking bill was to memorialize the harm done by the state and educate the public on eugenics. The bill mandated the involvement and survivors and advocates, with the intent to center the needs and desires of survivors in the process. However, most felt shut out of the process; their voices left unheard. CCWP instead came together to create a memorial quilt. Titled, Together We Rise, Together We Heal, this series of quilts was created by survivors and advocates inside and outside of state prisons. It represents the healing that comes through community and the importance of centering survivors and communities as we repair past harms.

From supporting survivors inside and outside of prison on getting compensated for being forcibly sterilized by the state, there was a direct need by incarcerated people inside that there needs to be more resources and education on people’s reproductive and medical rights while inside prison. Because of that response, a small group of advocates, researchers, as well as incarcerated people worked together to create a “Know Your Rights” Reproductive Healthcare Inside Prisons booklet that is directed at providing educational and advocacy tools for people inside prisons around reproductive and medical care.

In February 2025, CCWP helped launch a class action lawsuit against horrific OBGYN abuse at the California Institution for Women (CIW).