State faces payouts to victims of sterilisation

Nearly 35 years after ending the US’s most active post-war sterilisation programme, North Carolina is trying to make amends to thousands of people who cannot have children because of theories about social improvement.

Next week, victims and their relatives will tell their stories to a state task force considering compensation to victims of sterilisations that continued until 1974.

Roughly 85 per cent of victims were women or girls, some as young as 10.

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North Carolina has more victims living than any other state because most were sterilised after the Second World War, said Charmaine Fuller Cooper, director of the state Justice for Sterilisation Victims Foundation.

Eugenics programmes gained popularity in the US and other countries in the early 1900s but most abandoned those efforts after the Second World War because of the association with Nazi Germany’s programme aimed at racial purity.

As those ceased, North Carolina’s expanded, with sterilisations peaking in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Overt rationalisation for the programmes ranged from protecting the potential offspring of mentally disabled parents to improving the overall health and intellectual competence of the human race.

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In 1968, Elaine Riddick was like many others who were sterilised: poor, black and female.

Now living in Atlanta, Ms Riddick plans to drive to Raleigh next week to tell the task force about her sterilisation at 14 following a rape. She said her grandmother gave the state permission for the procedure.

“My grandmother was worried about me. I didn’t blame her,” Ms Riddick said, but added it had been a traumatic experience that led to years of depression and physical problems.

Ms Riddick wants financial compensation from the state to pay for doctor bills and medicine.

Researchers estimate more than 60,000 people nationwide were sterilised during the 20th century as part of government programmes.