Aggregated News
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Growing national attention to the 20th-century practice of forcibly sterilizing thousands of Americans has put new pressure on Virginia lawmakers to compensate survivors.
A drumbeat from both the left and the right of the political spectrum has revived outrage over eugenics, a practice designed to create an American master race by preventing people with mental illness, developmental disabilities or epilepsy from having children. State officials estimate that Virginia sterilized 7,325 people under a 1924 state law that remained on the books until 1979.
Virginia has so far rejected paying reparations to people who were sterilized primarily because, opponents say, the state doesn’t have the money.
But neighboring North Carolina, which forcibly sterilized about 7,600 people between 1929 and 1974, passed a law earlier this year setting aside $10 million for reparations. As lawmakers prepare for the Virginia General Assembly’s annual legislative session next month, those who suffered because of the eugenics movement hope Virginia will follow North Carolina’s example.
In both states, the number of people sterilized and still living is unclear, but most of the...
A drumbeat from both the left and the right of the political spectrum has revived outrage over eugenics, a practice designed to create an American master race by preventing people with mental illness, developmental disabilities or epilepsy from having children. State officials estimate that Virginia sterilized 7,325 people under a 1924 state law that remained on the books until 1979.
Virginia has so far rejected paying reparations to people who were sterilized primarily because, opponents say, the state doesn’t have the money.
But neighboring North Carolina, which forcibly sterilized about 7,600 people between 1929 and 1974, passed a law earlier this year setting aside $10 million for reparations. As lawmakers prepare for the Virginia General Assembly’s annual legislative session next month, those who suffered because of the eugenics movement hope Virginia will follow North Carolina’s example.
In both states, the number of people sterilized and still living is unclear, but most of the...