Involuntary Sterilization-Mississippi Appendectomy
According to the medical dictionary, "Involuntary Sterilization is any procedure that renders a legally incompetent person permanently infertile." Though this law was originally meant for mentally disabled people, African American men and women were subjected to these harsh practices due to some white doctors thinking that it is their "White duty" to sterilize African Americans. The state of Indiana began writing laws for this practice in 1907. The law says that involuntary sterilization was appropriate for those deemed unfit. Other states would enforce the same laws which in the long run, would cause many African Americans to lose their rights to bear children whether or not they wanted to.
Fannie Lou Hamer, a Civil Rights Activist, was a victim of this devastating act in 1961. She had a small cyst on her stomach that she went to have removed but when she woke up, she realized that she had a hysterectomy. Hamer coined the term "Mississippi Appendectomy" after this trauma happened to her and she was not alone. Another example of Involuntary Sterilization is shown in a court case, Relf v Weinberger (1973) where two young African American girls, aged 14 and 12, were sterilized after their mother gave consent to the doctor to give her daughters birth control. She never told the doctor that she wanted the girls sterilized. The girls won their court case which paved the way for the United States government to enact the Eugenics Compensation Act in 2015. This act would give compensation to victims of the Involuntary Sterilization and depending on the state, depended on how much each victim would be receiving. Other state governors ended up apologizing for the actions of the past but the pain felt upon the victims will always be there.
African Americans have been the victims of medical malpractice for decades and even today, African Americans still suffer medically. According to the CDC, African American women are more likely to die from giving birth than White women. These facts maybe hard to digest but take some time to reflect on them. Take time to reflect on what you just read. Understand that though African Americans have the right to vote, does not mean that in the year 2021 Black Americans are equal to White Americans.
We Reconstruct the Facts. Thank you for reading and always educate yourself, because the truth is not always promised.
https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/involuntary+sterilization
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/day-17-mississippi-appendectomies-msna293361
https://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case-docket/relf-v-weinberger
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html
Comments
Post a Comment