Press Play with Madeleine Brand
'No Más Bebés' Examines LA County Forced Sterilizations
When someone uses the word eugenics -- the genetic engineering of people -- it conjures up the horrors of Nazi Germany. But not so long ago, a more subtle kind of eugenics was carried out right here in the US, in the form of sterilizations performed by states.
By Madeleine Brand • • 1 min readWhen someone uses the word eugenics -- the genetic engineering of people -- it conjures up the horrors of Nazi Germany. But not so long ago, a more subtle kind of eugenics was carried out right here in the US, in the form of sterilizations performed by states. Many sterilizations took place at the Los Angeles County General hospital, where at least one hundred women, mostly poor, Latina immigrants, were sterilized when they came to the hospital to have their babies. Was it a case of social engineering? The new documentary No Más Bebésasks that question and tells the story of ten of these women who sued the hospital in 1975.
