Eugenic States: A Contextual Archive Main Menu Introduction Critical Themes in the History of Eugenics Eugenic Practices in California, Iowa, and North Carolina What We Can Say with Data Acknowledgements

California

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Of the 60,000 known eugenic sterilizations in the United States, approximately 20,000 were conducted in California. The state's institutions and medical officials played a prominent role in the eugenics movement both nationally and internationally. In the April 1909 legislative session and under the leadership of then governor James Gillett, California became the third state to enact sterilization laws (note, Washington State passed theirs in March 1909). According to testimony provided to the Senate Select Committee on Genetics in 2003 by bioethicist Paul Lombardo, the statute passed unanimously in the State Assembly and with just one dissenting vote in the state Senate.

Known as the "Asexualization Act," the 1909 law empowered medical superintendents at state institutions to end the reproductive capacity of those considered “unfit,” including without patient consent and, in some cases, as a prerequisite for release from some institutions. As was the case in Iowa, California's eugenic sterilization laws and programs continued until 1979. In 2021, a compensation program was established, offering up to $25,000 per person (CA SB 1190)

This page has paths:

  1. Eugenic Practices in California, Iowa, and North Carolina Jacqueline D. Wernimont

Contents of this path:

  1. A California Survivor's Story
  2. Sonoma: A California Institutional History
  3. Josephine R: A Propositus Resists
  4. Promoting Eugenics in the Los Angeles Times
  5. Eugenic Field Worker: C.M. Beatrice Lantz
  6. The California Bureau of Juvenile Research
  7. California’s Sterilization Law and the Women Who Challenged It
  8. Eugenics Reckoning, Reparations, and Memory in California
  9. The “Right” to Procreate
  10. Asian Immigration and Eugenics in California
  11. Coercive Consent