User:Morganvr12/sandboxwgst

My plan is to edit the following Wikipedia page, Eugenics in the United States, to include a specific section centering around the experiences of Latina and immigrant women who have experienced sterilization/the history of sterilization in this community specifically.

The 20th century demarcated a time in which compulsory sterilization heavily navigated its way into primarily Latinx communities, against Latina women. Locations such as Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, California were found to have had large amounts of their female population coerced into sterilization procedures without quality and necessary informed consent nor full awareness of the procedure.

Between the span of the 1930's to the 1970's, nearly one-third of the female population in Puerto Rico was sterilized; at the time, this was the highest rate of sterilization in the world.^[1] Arguments stand that the implementation of sterilization was in an effort to rectify the country's poverty and unemployment rates, even so that sterilization became legal in the eyes of the government in 1937.^[2] The procedure was so common that it was often referred to solely as “la operación", garnering a documentary referenced by the same name. This intentional targeting of Latinx communities exemplifies the strategic placement of racial eugenics in modern history. This targeting is also inclusive of those with disabilities and those from marginalized populations, which Puerto Rico is not the only example of this trend.

Eugenics did not serve as the only reason for the disproportionate rates of sterilization in the Puerto Rican community. Contraceptive trials were inducted in the 1950's towards Puerto Rican women. Dr. John Rock and Dr. Gregory Pincus were the two men spearheading the human trials of oral contraceptives. In 1954, the decision was made to conduct the clinical experiment in Puerto Rico, citing the island's large network of birth control clinics and lack of anti-birth control laws, which was in contrast to the United States' thorough cultural and religious opposition to the reproductive service.^[3] The decision to conduct the trials in this community was also motivated by the structural implications of supremacy and colonialism. Rock and Pincus monopolized off of the primarily poor and uneducated background of these women, countering that if they "could follow the Pill regimen, then women anywhere in the world could too."^[4] These women were purposely ill-informed of the oral contraceptives presence; the researchers only reported that the drug, which was administered at a much higher dosage than what birth control is prescribed at today, was to prevent pregnancy, not that it was tied to a clinical trial in order to jump start oral contraceptive access in America through FDA approval.

In California, by the year 1964, a total of 20,108 people were sterilized, making that the largest amount in all of the United States.^[5] It is an important note that during this period in California's population demographic, the total individuals sterilized was disproportionately inclusive of Mexican, Mexican-American, and Chicana women. Andrea Estrada, a UC Santa Barbara affiliate, said:

Beginning in 1909 and continuing for 70 years, California led the country in the number of sterilization procedures performed on men and women, often without their full knowledge and consent. Approximately 20,000 sterilizations took place in state institutions, comprising one-third of the total number performed in the 32 states where such action was legal.^[6]

Cases such as Madrigal v. Quilligan, a class action suit regarding forced or coerced postpartum sterilization of Latina women following cesarean sections, helped bring to light the widespread abuse of sterilization supported by federal funds. The case's plaintiffs were 10 sterilized women of Los Angeles County Hospital who elected to come forward with their stories. Although a grim reality, No más bebés is a documentary that offers an emotional and candid storytelling of the Madrigal v. Quilligan case on behalf of Latina women whom were direct recipients of the coerced sterilization of the Los Angeles' hospital. The judge's ruling sided with the County Hospital, but an aftermath of the case resulted in the accessibility of multiple language informed consent forms.

These stories, among many others, serve as backbones for not only the reproductive justice movement that we see today, but a better understanding and recognition of the Chicana feminism movement in contrast to white feminism's perception of reproductive rights.

Bibliography:

• https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/health-and-society/dark-history-forced-sterilization-latina-women
• Contraceptive trials in Puerto Rico
• https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-puerto-rico-pill-trials/
• https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/CA/CA.html
• https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/015287/politics-female-biology-and-reproduction
• Madrigal v. Quilligan
• No más bebés
• La Operación