Summary of the Sterilization Laws [chart]
- Title:
- Summary of the Sterilization Laws [chart]
- Alternate Title:
- Summary of the Sterilization Laws [chart]
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Boyden, Mabel G.
- Other Creators:
- Birthright, Inc., publisher
- Date:
- 1944
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2566.04
- File Name:
- PJM_2566_04.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Disaster/Health/Environment
Other Moral & Social
Politics & Government - Measurement:
- 32 x 24 sheet (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- The collection includes three folding pamphlets issued in the mid-1940s supporting the forced sterilization of criminals and variously defined "mental deficients." Included is a chart of state laws and a set of four maps dramatically demonstrating how widespread the practice had become in America.
Forced sterilization is a manifestation of "eugenics," the "science" of improving the population by preventing those deemed to be "inferior" from reproducing. Toward the end of the 19th century, some medical and scientific works proposed that criminal behaviour, mental illness, alcoholism, epilepsy, and other diseases were largely inherited. These reports coincided with a number of societal concerns: increased crime; difficulty in assimilating larger immigrant populations; growth in the number of those in prisons and mental institutions; and the lack of effective treatments of mental disability.
In 1907, Indiana adopted the nation's first law providing for the involuntary sterilization of "confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles and rapists" in state institutions. Reilly 1987, 153-54, 158. A number of other states followed, particularly after 1927, when the Supreme Court upheld state involuntary sterilization laws. In that case, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes concluded for the majority that: "It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind." Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, 207.
The three pamphlets in the collection were published by the ironically-named "Birthright Inc.," a well-funded organization that fostered new programs across the country and maintained sterilization statistics. Reilly 165-66. The first pamphlet, ID #2566.01-.02, discusses the number of "mental deficients" and "insane," along with academic studies regarding their criminality and disease, and concludes that "Society cannot continue to support an ever-increasing number of socially inadequate persons." Accordingly, Birthright, Inc. "adopts selective sterilization as the only immediate and effective method of checking the increase of those who are least qualified to exercise the privilege of parenthood."
The second pamphlet, ID #2566.03-.04, is a "Summary of the Sterilization Laws of 28 States and Puerto Rico." This folding chart contains a wealth of information as to each state, in some 35 categories, including the classes of persons and conditions covered; the administrative and surgical procedures; and the presence or absence of various protections. Among other things, the data show that three states required no notice to the patient, parent or guardian; only three states allowed a jury trial on demand; and the grounds for involuntary sterilization in California included "syphilitic disease, insanity of pregnancy, families already too large."
The final pamphlet, ID #2566.05-.06, unfolds to a dramatic series of four "U.S. Maps showing the States having Sterilization Laws in 1910-1920-1930-1940." On each map, the states that had adopted these laws are shown in white and all other states are black. The year the legislation was enacted is spelled out the first time any state appears in white. The images show at a glance the steady growth of the movement each decade, from the three states in 1910 to 28 in 1940. Just as the Suffrage Map showed the apparently undeniable progress toward votes for women nationwide (Search > Suffrage), this series of maps suggest a similarly inevitable movement to forced sterilization.
It has been estimated that more than 60,000 people in 30 states were sterilized under these laws from 1907 to 1963. Reilly 161. In addition, "thousands of poor, mostly Black women were sterilized each year in the United States under federally funded programs." Villarosa 2022. The aggressive use of forced sterilization by the Nazis brought much increased criticism and reconsideration and a slowing of American programs. At the same time, "already-entrenched programs continued to sterilize about 2500 institutionalized persons each year." Reilly 165. Although many state laws have been repealed, the practice continues, and recent patterns of forced or coerced government sterilization were reported in California (2006 to 2010), in Tennessee (2017), and in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Georgia (2020). Villarosa 2022.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.