| Part of eugenics in the United States | |
 The Napa State Hospital | |
| Date | 1909–1979 |
|---|---|
| Location | California |
| Type | Forced sterilization |
| Motive | Ableism, racism[1] |
| Target | Disabled people People with mental illness Mexican-Americans African Americans |
| Casualties | |
| 20,000[2] | |
| Part of a series on |
| Eugenics in the United States |
|---|
Eugenics in California is a notable part of eugenics in the United States. As an early leading force in the field of eugenics, California became the third state in the United States to enact a sterilization law. By 1921, California had accounted for 80% of sterilizations nationwide. This continued until the Civil Rights Movement, when widespread critiques against society's "total institutions" dismantled popular acceptance for the state's forced sterilizations.[3] There were an estimated 20,000 forced sterilizations in California between 1909 and 1979; however, that number may be an underestimation.[4][5] In 2021, California enacted a reparations program to compensate the hundreds of still living victims from its eugenics program.[6]
- ^ Simmonds, Janet (2006). "Coercion in California: Eugenics Reconstituted in Welfare Reform, the Contracting of Reproductive Capcity, and Terms of Probation". Hastings Women's Law Journal. 17: 269.
- ^ Zhang S (3 January 2017). "A Long-Lost Data Trove Uncovers California's Sterilization Program". The Atlantic. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
- ^ Stern AM (August 8, 2005). Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America (1 ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520244443. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
- ^ Stolerman K. "The American Eugenics Movement: A Study of the Dispersal and Application of Racial Ideologies". Aisthesis. University of Minnesota. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
- ^ Kaelber L. "California Eugenics". University of Vermont. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
- ^ "Survivors of California's forced sterilizations: 'It's like my life wasn't worth anything'". the Guardian. 2021-07-19. Retrieved 2021-07-25.