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 The legislation, years in the making, will compensate survivors of
state-sponsored sterilization that took place under so-called
eugenics laws in effect between 1909 and 1979. The $7.5 million fund
will also cover survivors of forced sterilization performed in
prisons after 1979.
The Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program was
assured as part of a massive state budget deal signed by California
Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday night.
Eugenics is a now-discredited practice designed to stop people
diagnosed with mental deficiencies from reproducing. Often labeled
as "mental deficient" and "feebleminded," those targeted for
sterilization were disproportionately members of racial and ethnic
minorities, especially Latinos in California, according to the bill.
"This is very much about acknowledging that there were wrongs
committed by the state intentionally, against certain groups of
people that were deemed unfit to reproduce or to be members of
California society," said Laura Jimenez, director of California
Latinas for Reproductive Justice, which worked five years for the
legislation.
Supporters of the program say it received a political boost from
recent news headlines.
A whistleblower last year called attention to abnormally high rates
of hysterectomies at immigration detention facilities. And pop star
Britney Spears is trying to end a conservatorship that has forced
her to use an intrauterine device to prevent her from becoming
pregnant.
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"It's really about talking about what
reproductive oppression looks like," said
Jimenez, adding that the whistleblower complaint
in particular fueled support for the bill, which
was sponsored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo,
a Democrat from Los Angeles.
Nazi Germany's eugenics program was inspired in part by what was
happening in California, historians say.
Of the 20,000 people forcibly sterilized by California during the
last century, an estimated 350 victims may be alive, according to
backers of the program, who hope to provide around $25,000 to each
of those they can locate. The California Victim Compensation Board
is responsible for reaching out to victims.
Rectifying the past injustice has been an issue in California at
least since 2003, when former California Governor Gray Davis
apologized for California's eugenic sterilization program.
California now joins Virginia and North Carolina as the third state
to offer such reparations.
Jimenez said her group has advocated for legislation for five years
and in three prior legislative sessions the bill died when funding
was denied.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by
Howard Goller)
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