Democratic Congress members Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Patty Murray (Wash.), and Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) drafted and introduced a resolution aimed at overturning laws that allow states to sterilize disabled people. The resolution is a direct response to the 1927 case Buck v Bell.
Carrie Buck was a young Virginia woman who was labeled “feebleminded” and institutionalized and became pregnant after being raped. Under the state’s eugenics laws, she was subjected to forced sterilization. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Virginia’s law, with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously declaring, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” This decision paved the way for the sterilization of more than 60,000 individuals across the U.S. under various eugenics laws, disproportionately affecting women, people of color, and those with disabilities.
During a Colorado press conference announcing the resolution, Rebecca Cokely, a disability advocate and former executive director of the National Council on Disability, shared a story about her personal experience with reproductive healthcare. After giving birth to her middle child, the anesthesiologist told her OBGYN “to tie tubes,” adding, “People like her don’t need to have any more babies.” While her OBGYN declined, Cokely acknowledges that the doctor “could have advocated for it, and it would have been totally legal.”
Thirty-one states, including Washington D.C., have laws permitting forced sterilization.
North Carolina and Alaska are the only states that ban forced sterilization in most cases. While seemingly a “protective” move, unfortunately, it also stops some disabled people who want a sterilization from getting one. At the Colorado press conference, Jesse Davidson, communications director at the American Association of People with Disabilities, emphasized the importance of full access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion. Davidson explained, “Some members of the [disabled] community have 11 times greater risk for mortality from pregnancy.” With the overturning of Roe v Wade, disabled people who attempt a high-risk pregnancy in states with strict abortion laws are now faced with increased life-threatening risks.
Ultimately, the choice to become a parent or not should be up to each individual person. This new resolution represents a significant step toward reproductive justice, seeking to restore dignity and bodily autonomy to those who have been denied these fundamental rights.
SOURCES
https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/%C6%92.NWLC_SterilizationReport_2021.pdf