California will pay reparations to survivors of state-sanctioned forced, involuntary sterilizations
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By signing the state budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom makes California the third state in the U.S. that will pay reparations to survivors of forced or involuntary sterilizations sanctioned by the state under eugenics laws.
It will be the first to pay reparations to survivors who were forcibly sterilized by doctors working in California prisons.
The state budget designates $7.5 million for reparations to survivors.
Between 1909 and 1979, the state sanctioned the forced or involuntary sterilization of roughly 20,000 people, making up roughly a third of sterilizations nationwide.
"Eugenics really put forth the idea that anyone that was kind of physically or mentally 'deficient,' was a social liability," said Natalie Lira, a researcher at the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which helped provide data toward the effort.
"Many of them were also disproportionately Latinos, primarily Mexican origin folks, many were young," she said. "Majority of them were low-income folks, by and large."
A coalition of organizations will build the infrastructure to find survivors who don't know they were sterilized in state institutions, and eventually pay them reparations. They estimate payments could be up to $24,000, starting with an initial payment of roughly $12,000.
Lorena Garcia-Zermeño of California Latinas for Reproductive Justice said there are an estimated 383 living survivors of forced sterilization stemming from eugenics laws and approximately 244 survivors that were sterilized while incarcerated.
Supporters hope AB 1007 expands the definition of survivors across the state. Meantime, L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis just introduced a motion to explore reparations for forced sterilizations at L.A. County - USC Medical Center in the 60s and 70s.
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