This shit continued waaaaaaaay beyond WW II.
Here. In the good ol' US of A.
Quote of note:
Riddick went on to earn a college degree and raise the son she had at 14. He now is an engineering consultant.
State Secret: Thousands Secretly Sterilized
N.C. Woman Among 65,000 Sterilized by Gov't., Often Without Their Knowledge, in 20th Century
May. 15, 2005 - Beneath the surface of this Southern town, with its lush evergreens and winding riverbanks, is a largely forgotten legacy of pain, secrecy and human indignity.
"My heart still bleeds, and it will forever bleed, because of what had happened to me," local resident Elaine Riddick said.
Riddick was one of thousands of people secretly sterilized by the state between 1929 and 1974.
From the early 1900s to the 1970s, some 65,000 men and women were sterilized in this country, many without their knowledge, as part of a government eugenics program to keep so-called undesirables from reproducing.
"The procedures that were done here were done to poor folks," said Steven Selden, professor at the University of Maryland. "They were thought to be poor because they had bad genes or bad inheritance, if you will. And so they would be the focus of the sterilization."
Sterilized Without Her Knowledge
Riddick was raped and became pregnant at the age of 13. Social workers labeled her promiscuous and too feeble-minded to ever be a responsible parent. So, after giving birth in 1968, Riddick was sterilized without being told.
She learned the truth years later, when she married and tried to have more children.
"They took so much away from me," Riddick said. "They took away my spirit and my soul."
North Carolina sterilized close to 8,000 women in hospitals across the state.
