Well, it’s nothing to be proud about—not now, not then.
“Then” refers to the thirty states that practice forced sterilization of those women who were judged “feeble-minded” or “dim-witted.” It also, in Puerto Rican terms, refers to the Ley 116, of 1937, which established free sterilization clinics throughout the island.
As you can see in the video below, there were historical and economic reasons for the decision. Puerto Rico had been largely agrarian—the advent of the large corporations and King Sugar drove some people off the land and into company housing or cities. Overpopulation was seen as a real threat on an island where the rate of unemployment is substantially higher than in the states. And employers greatly favored sterilized workers—and what was our industry for many years? The garment industry, traditionally a female-dominated affair.
So public health workers went from house to house, putting on the screws. The worst abuse was that, as reported in one 1968 study, one third of Puerto Rican women were unaware that sterilization was permanent. It made sense, in a way: if you could “tie the tubes,” then obviously you could untie them, right? Worse, women were routinely not told of other contraception methods—it was sterilization or nothing.
So effective was the effort that Puerto Rico had the highest rate of sterilized women anywhere—35% in the 1960’s. Eventually, as Dr. Rodríguez Trías states in the clip below, people realized that Puerto Rico was serving as a training area for sterilization programs in the states. She and others banded together and started CESA, the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse.
Yes, thirty other states had eugenics programs and laws permitting forced sterilization—the difference seems to be that the programs in the states tended to be directed at the mentally ill, epileptics, the mentally retarded, though Native Americans seemed to be much more highly targeted. In other words, a normal WASP woman had nothing to worry about; a normal Native American better watch out.
Right—and now?
What Rodríguez Trías says at the end of the clip is chilling. Abortion rights are being chipped away as never before. My own state, Wisconsin, has just voted in a law requiring ultrasound tests to be done and discussed with the expectant mother. Why? Is there any medical reason to do this? Isn’t this more coercion on a woman who is already quite stressed? Since the government is not paying now for abortions, who is going to pick up the bill for the ultrasound? The state? Don’t think so.
So abortion rights are getting ever more flimsy—but what’s happening with sterilization? Well, the graph below tells the story:
(Graph’s source: http://msmagazine.com/blog/2011/07/21/sterilization-of-women-of-color-does-unforced-mean-freely-chosen/)
The cream bar is American Indian / Alaskan Native, and the grey bar is non-Hispanic white women. OK—but what about Puerto Rican women, both on and off the island? In a study done by Iris López, the situation has gotten no better: this is what Ms magazine said about the matter:
The cream bar is American Indian / Alaskan Native, and the grey bar is non-Hispanic white women. OK—but what about Puerto Rican women, both on and off the island? In a study done by Iris López, the situation has gotten no better: this is what Ms magazine said about the matter:
During the U.S. colonization of Puerto Rico, over one-third of all women were sterilized. And today, still, Puerto Rican women in both Puerto Rico and the U.S. have “one of the highest documented rates of sterilization in the world.” Two-thirds are sterilized before the age of 30.
Nor is that all—44% of the women were forced into sterilization by poverty: they wanted children, but could not afford them, or were living in places where crime and gangs made raising children difficult. And yes, many of the women reported that their health care providers didn’t discuss any other alternative besides sterilization for birth control.
And here’s where Rodríguez Trías’ point about birth control versus population control becomes especially true. Population control happens when someone makes a policy and imposes it on (mostly) women or (sometimes) men; birth control happens when an individual freely and knowingly chooses the option best for her.
Two more thoughts—there’s something quite perverse about the conservative ideology. The moment a woman wants an abortion—she can’t, she’ll have to bear that child through hell or high water. But the moment a poor woman or minority woman wants birth control? Sterilization, which is still free in the United States. In both cases, it seems that men almost perversely cannot allow a woman to have control over her body.
Lastly, if 66% of Puerto Rican women are sterilized before the age of 30, don’t we have a word for that?
Genocide?
