North Carolina sterilization program, which targeted women, young girls and blacks

[liberal N proud]

Elaine Riddick was 13 years old when she got pregnant after being raped by a neighbor in Winfall, N.C., in 1967. The state ordered that immediately after giving birth, she should be sterilized. Doctors cut and tied off her fallopian tubes.

“I have to carry these scars with me. I have to live with this for the rest of my life,” she said.

Riddick was never told what was happening. “Got to the hospital and they put me in a room and that’s all I remember, that’s all I remember,” she said. “When I woke up, I woke up with bandages on my stomach.”

Riddick’s records reveal that a five-person state eugenics board in Raleigh had approved a recommendation that she be sterilized. The records label Riddick as “feebleminded” and “promiscuous.” They said her schoolwork was poor and that she “does not get along well with others.”


http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/07/8640744-victims-speak-out-about-north-carolina-sterilization-program-which-targeted-women-young-girls-and-blacks

Unbelievable!

[nc4bo]

1. There is not enough money in the world that can make these people whole again

I'm sure some have dealt with it and moved on in some way but I feel so incredibly sad and angry for those who can not and those who spent their lives distraught or angry.

[Lance_Boyle]

11. There's not enough money in the State budget, either, but guess what?

That's where the "reparations" are going to come from. You and I will be paying "restitution" to these people, despite the fact that I (and I suspect you as well) never participated in this. That's why the shock articles are coming out now. To soften the blow of the theft of our tax dollars going to right a wrong with which we had nothing to do. NC has better use for the money.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. Fuck that. I WELCOME my tax dollars going to pay reparations for

these citizens. The state hurt them, the state owes them. WE are the state.

I far prefer my tax dollars going to this than going to corporations who blackmail the state into giving them money on the threat of them decamping for more lucrative states.

[Lance_Boyle]

17. I prefer not to be penalized for the sins of governments past.

And even if I did support paying restitution out of State funds (which I never will), how exactly are we repairing the damage done? "Got sterilized against your will in 1962? Here's five grand." It ain't gonna bring back what was taken. And as one who never did the taking, I resent being asked to pay for it. This is a case of "mistakes were made." It is not a case of "everyone paying taxes in NC now is guilty - pay up." I never voted for any government that did this. How about you create the funds for reparation out of an extra tax on people who were of voting age at the time the program was in place? It's still not fair to the vast majority of those people, but at least it makes sense in your framework of "We are the State." I am not the State of NC in 1962. Never was and never will be. Don't want to pay for what *they* did.

[nc4bo]

19. +1

I have no problem with tax payer money used in this way, none.

I only wish this would heal their bodies, minds and spirits, sadly, no amount of money can do that.

As a community, we must make certain that this will never happen again.

[MineralMan]

2. California also sterilized women in large numbers.

The excuse was always that they were feeble-minded. Eugenics. A shame on our nation that we had such laws.

Here's an LA Times story. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/16/opinion/oe-irons16

[me b zola]

12. Thank you for this article

In 1963 I was born in Los Angeles in a home for unwed mothers. I am horrified that my birth-mother could possibly be a victim of this practice.



:cry:

[MineralMan]

21. It's very possible. Actually, many women were sterilized by doctors

without that fact being recorded. That especially happened in places like homes for unwed mothers. There was a campaign against the practice in 1963, when I was still a senior in High School. I wrote a number of letters to legislators about it. California stopped the practice in 1964.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. It was a widely supported approach at the time, including by Margaret Sanger

founder of Planned Parenthood and the Birth Control Movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger

It is easy to judge yesterday by today's standards. Have to wonder what we accept today as good and normal will be judged harshly in the future.

[redqueen]

5. "Have to wonder what we accept today as good and normal ...

will be judged harshly in the future."

I imagine many of us have a decent idea.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Actually I don't think we do

While abhorrent today, eugenics had broad support, even amongst those who were leading edge social reformers and liberals, including Sanger. No one really opposed it at the time.

Its sort of like the next really disruptive technology. Its out there but none of us have a clue what it is quite yet.

[Romulox]

8. Perhaps allowing people the "right" to bring children into poverty will be considered abhorrent?

:shrug:

[grilled onions]

9. If We As A So Called Society Banned The Poor From Having Children

how many famous people would never have been born? From presidents such as Lincoln to musicians such as Benny Goodman,Louis Armstrong to comic genius's such as the Marx Brothers. Instead of judging a future parent by way of a bank account perhaps they should see how much love they have to give. Many a poor mother hugged her child with a richness no wealthy child's nanny could match.

[Romulox]

13. I didn't say a word about a "ban". "Abhorrent" means loathsome. nt

[Lance_Boyle]

18. Maybe Planned Parenthood ought to pay resitution, then.

I had nothing to do with the program and as a taxpaying citizen of NC resent being expected to pay for its abuses.

[Pigheaded]

4. Some prick ordered it He or she should be in jail as I write.

PH

[MineralMan]

6. Similar sterilization laws existed in 30 states, and the practice

was approved by the Supreme Court of The United States. California did the most sterilizations, about 20,000. Over 60,000 were done nationwide. Almost all were done to blacks, people with mental disorders, and people with developmental disorders. Such sterilizations were still being done in California when I graduated from high school there in 1963.

[NashVegas]

10. Watch "Rambling Rose" Some Time

The use of science to control a population is evil.

For those who don't understand why there are religious entities who distrust science, here's just one of your answers.

[Odin2005]

15. They still do this with disabled people.

Of course it technically isn't involuntary because the guardians are pressured to give consent. :puke:

[Lyric]

16. I've seen similar ideas advocated right here.

When you* claim that poor women who "can't afford" their children ought to be "stopped from breeding", what exactly do you think is going to happen?

:shrug:

*You in general--not you specifically

[Fumesucker]

20. Dead people can't breed...

And that has nothing to do with sterilization.

:shrug: