Resources.

Resources for educators, researchers, and further reading.

Digital Resources

Screenshot of the Sonoma State Hospital Narrative and Visual History Site. Links out to the external site.
Sonoma State Hospital Narrative and Visual History. Justin Joque, Kayla Kingston, Nicole Novak, Alexandra Minna Stern, Kate O'Connor, and Jacqueline Wernimont.

​Eugenic Rubicon: California's Sterilization Stories. Jacqueline Wernimont and Alexandra Minna Stern.

"The Movement that Inspired the Holocaust," TEDx Animation

Trace the history of the eugenics movement in the US, and discover how the belief in ideal genetics led to forced sterilizations.

Since ancient Greece, humans have controlled populations via reproduction, retaining some traits and removing others. But in the 19th century, a new scientific movement dedicated to this endeavor emerged: eugenics. Scientists believed they could improve society by ensuring that only desirable traits were passed down. Alexandra Minna Stern and Natalie Lira detail the history of eugenics in the US.

Lesson by Alexandra Minna Stern and Natalie Lira, directed by Héloïse Dorsan-Rachet.​

Archives, Collections, and Further Reading

Archives and Collections
  1. California State Archives, Sacramento, CA
Contextual Readings
  1. Brian Gratton and Myron P. Gutmann. “Hispanics in the United States, 1850–1990: Estimates and Interdisciplinary History.” Historical Methods 33, no. 3 (2000): 137–153.
  2. Brian Gratton, F. Arturo Rosales, and Hans DeBano. “A Sample of the Mexican-American Population in 1940.” Historical Methods 21, no.2 (Spring 1988).
 
Historiography and Methods
  1. George C. Alter, Myron P. Gutmann, Susan Hautaniemi Leonard, and Emily R. Merchant. “Longitudinal Analysis of Historical-Demographic Data.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 52, no. 4 (Spring 2012): 503–517.
  2. Michelle Caswell. “Defining Human Rights Archives: Introduction to the Special Double Issue on Archives and Human Rights.” Archival Science 14 (2014): 207–213.
  3. Michelle Caswell. “Toward a Survivor-Centered Approach to Records Documenting Human Rights Abuse: Lessons from Community Archives.” Archival Science 14 (2014): 307–322.
  4. J.T.H. Connor. “The ‘Human Subject,’ ‘Vulnerable Populations,’ and Medical History: The Problem of Presentism and Discourse of Bioethics.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History (2017).
  5. Hariz Halilovich. “Reclaiming Erased Lives: Archives, Records, and Memories in Post-War Bosnia and the Bosnian Diaspora.” Archival Science 14 (2014): 231–247.
  6. Derek L. Hansen, Patrick Schone, Douglas Corey, Matthew Reid, and Jake Gehring. “Quality Control Mechanisms for Crowdsourcing: Peer Review, Arbitration, and Expertise at FamilySearch Indexing.” Computer Supported Cooperative Work (2013).
  7. Derek Hansen, Jake Gehring, Patrick Schone, and Matthew Reid. “Improving Indexing Efficiency and Quality: Comparing A-B-Arbitrate and Peer Review.” (2013).
  8. David Kaye. “Archiving Justice: Conceptualizing the Archives of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.” Archival Science 14 (2014): 381–396.
  9. Vani Natarajan and Hannah Mermelstein. “Knowledge, Access, and Resistance: A Conversation on Librarians and Archivists to Palestine.” in Melissa Morrone, ed., Informed Agitation: Library and Information Skills in Social Justice Movements and Beyond. Sacramento: Library Juice Press, 2014. 274–258.
  10. Geoffrey Robinson. “Break the Rules, Save the Records: Human Rights Archives and the Search for Justice in East Timor.” Archival Science 14 (2014): 323–343.
  11. Amanda Strauss. “Treading the Ground of Contested Memory: Archivists and the Human Rights Movement in Chile.” Archival Science 15 (2015): 369–397.
  12. Katherine M. Wisser and Joel A. Blanco-Rivera. “Surveillance, Documentation, and Privacy: An International Comparative Analysis of State Intelligence Records.” Archival Science 16 (2016): 125–147.
 
History of Eugenics (General)
  1. Morton Birnbaum. “Eugenic Sterilization: A Discussion of Certain Legal, Medical, and Moral Aspects of Present Practices in our Public Mental Institutions.” Journal of American Medical Association 175, no. 2 (1961): 951–958.
  2. Jana Grekul, Harvey Krahn, and Dave Odynak. “Sterilizing the ‘Feeble-minded’: Eugenics in Alberta, Canada, 1929–1972.” Journal of Historical Sociology 17, no. 4 (December 2004).
  3. Rosalind Pollack Petchesky. “Reproduction, Ethics, and Public Policy: The Federal Sterilization Regulations.” The Hastings Center Report 9, no. 5 (October 1979): 29–41.
  4. Philip R. Reilly. “Eugenics and Involuntary Sterilization: 1907–2015.” Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics 16 (2015): 351–361.
  5. Chaneesa Ryan, Abrar Ali, and Christine Shawana. “Forced or Coerced Sterilization in Canada: An Overview of Recommendations for Moving Forward.” International Journal of Indigenous Health 16, no. 1 (2021).
  6. “Nordic Eugenics: Here, Of All Places.” The Economist. 28 August 1997.
  7. Linda Villarosa. “The Long Shadow of Eugenics in America.” New York Times Magazine. 8 June 2022.
  8. Pedro Weisleder. “The Eugenics Record Office’s ‘Bulletin No. 4: A First Study of Inheritance in Epilepsy’ Through the Lens of Contemporaneous Book Reviews.” Seminars in Pediatric Neurology 38 (July 2021).
Access to Reproductive Care, Contraception, and Reproductive Autonomy
  1. Kathryn M. Curtis, Anshu P. Mohllajee, and Herbert B. Peterson. “Regret Following Female Sterilization at a Young Age: A Systematic Review.” Contraception 73 (2006): 205–210.
  2. Erika Dyck. “Sterilization and Birth Control in the Shadow of Eugenics: Married, Middle-Class Women in Alberta, 1930–1960s.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 31, no. 1 (2014): 165–187.
  3. Mieke C.W. Eeckhaut and Megan M. Sweeney. “The Perplexing Links between Contraceptive Sterilization and (Dis)Advantage in Ten Low-Fertility Countries.” Population Studies: A Journal of Demography 70, no. 1 (January 2016): 39–58.
  4. Mieke C.W. Eeckhaut, Megan M. Sweeney, and Jessica D. Gipson. “Who is Using Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive Methods? Findings from Nine Low-Fertility Countries.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 46, no. 3 (2014): 149–155.
  5. Liza Fuentes, Sharon Lebenkoff, Kari White, Caitlin Gerdts, Kristine Hopkins, Joseph E. Potter, and Daniel Grossman. “Women’s Experiences Seeking Abortion Care Shortly after the Closure of Clinics due to a Restrictive Law in Texas.” Contraception 93, no. 4 (April 2016): 292–297.
  6. Denise Jamieson, Steven C. Kaufman, Caroline Costello, Susan D. Hillis, Polly A. Marchbanks, and Herbert B. Peterson. “A Comparison of Women’s Regret after Vasectomy Versus Tubal Sterilization.” The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 99, no. 6 (June 2022).
  7. Jenny A. Higgins. “Celebration Meets Caution: Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC)’s Boons, Potential Busts, and the Benefits of a Reproductive Justice Approach.” Contraception 89, no. 4 (April 2014): 237–241.
  8. Susan D. Hillis, Polly A. Marchbanks, Lisa Ratliff Tylor, and Herbert B. Peterson. “Poststerilization Regret: Findings from the United States Collaborative Review of Sterilization.” Obstetrics and Gynecology 93, no. 6 (June 1999).
  9. Ginny Garcia, Dawn M. Richardson, Kelly L. Gonzales, and Adolfo G. Cuevas. “Trends and Disparities in Postpartum Sterilization after Cesarean Section, 2000 through 2008.” Women's Health Issues 25, no. 6 (November–December 2015): 634–640.
  10. Anu Manchikanti Gomez, Liza Fuentes, and Amy Allina. “Women or LARC First? Reproductive Autonomy and the Promotion of Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive Methods.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 46, no. 3 (September 2014): 171–175.
  11. Michelle H. Moniz, Tammy Chang, Michele Heisler, Lindsay Admon, Acham Gebremariam, Vanessa K. Dalton, and Matthew M. Davis. “Inpatient Postpartum Long-Acting Reversible Contraception and Sterilization in the United States, 2008–2013.” Obstetrics and Gynecology 129, no. 6 (June 2017).
  12. National Women’s Health Network and Sister Song. “Long-Acting Reversible Contraception Statement of Principles.” April 2016.
  13. Joseph E. Potter, Kari White, Kristine Hopkins, Sarah McKinnon, Michele G. Shedlin, Jon Amastae, and Daniel Grossman. “Frustrated Demand for Sterilization among Low-Income Latinas in El Paso, Texas.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 44, no. 4 (2012).
  14. Alanna E.F. Rudzik, Susan H. Leonard, and Lynnette L. Sievert. “Determinants of Tubal Ligation in Puebla, Mexico.” Women and Health 51, no. 4 (2011): 365–382.
 
Carceral States and Sterilization
  1. Laura I. Appleman. “Deviancy, Dependency, and Disability: The Forgotten History of Eugenics and Mass Incarceration.” Duke Law Journal 68, no. 3 (December 2018).
  2. John P. Radford. “Sterilization Versus Segregation: Control of the ‘Feebleminded’, 1900–1938.” Social Science Medicine 33, no. 4 (1991): 449–458.
  3. Darrell Steffensmeier and Stephen Demuth. “Does Gender Modify the Effects of Race-Ethnicity on Criminal Sanctioning? Sentences for Male and Female White, Black, and Hispanic Defendants.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 22 (2006): 241–261.
  4. Carolyn B. Sufrin, Jacqueline P. Tulsky, Joseph Goldenson, Kelly S. Winter, and Deborah L. Cohan. “Emergency Contraception for Newly Arrested Women: Evidence for an Unrecognized Public Health Opportunity.” Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 87, no. 2 (2009).
  5. Della J. Winters and Adria Ryan McLaughlin. “Soft Sterilization: Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives in the Carceral State.” Journal of Women and Social Work 35, no. 2 (2020): 218–230.
 
Disability and Reproductive Autonomy
  1. Jeffrey P. Baker and Birgit Lang. “Eugenics and the Origins of Autism.” Pediatrics 104, no. 2 (August 2017).
  2. Molly Ladd-Taylor. “Contraception or Eugenics? Sterilization and 'Mental Retardation' in the 1970s and 1980s.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 31, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 189–211.
  3. Jamelia N. Morgan. “Policing Under Disability Law.” Stanford Law Review 73, no. 6 (June 2021).
  4. Julia A. Rivera Drew. “Hysterectomy and Disability among U.S. Women.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 45, no. 2 (2013): 147–163.
 
Genetics, Race, and Eugenics
  1. Sonya Borrero, Eleanor B. Schwarz, Matthew F. Reeves, James E. Bost, Mitchell D. Creinin, and Said A. Ibrahim. “Does Vasectomy Explain the Difference in Tubal Sterilization Rates between Black and White Women?” American Society for Reproductive Medicine 91, no. 5 (May 2009).
  2. Ellen Wright Clayton and Kyle B. Brothers. “State-Offered Ethnically Targeted Reproductive Genetic Testing.” Genetics in Medicine 18, no. 2 (February 2016).
  3. Emily Klancher Merchant, Lisa Dive, and Osagie Obasogie (Moderator). “Ensuring Equitable Use of New Genetic Technologies: Lessons from Eugenics.” ELSIhub. 14 January 2022.
  4. Natalie Lira, Nicole Novak, Elyse Thulin, and Alexandra Minna Stern. “Studying America’s Eugenics Era through an ELSI Lens: Data, Context, and Relevance.” ELSIhub. June 2020.
  5. Jo C. Phelan, Bruce G. Link, and Narumi M. Feldman. “The Genomic Revolution and Beliefs about Essential Racial Differences: A Backdoor to Eugenics?” American Sociological Review 78, No. 2 (1 April 2013): 167–191.
  6. Susan M. Reverby. “Invoking ‘Tuskegee’: Problems in Health Disparities, Genetic Assumptions, and History.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Undeserved 21, no. 3 (August 2010 Supplement): 26–34.
  7. Sarah Zhang. “Will the Alt-Right Promote a New Kind of Racist Genetics?” The Atlantic. 29 December 2016.
 
Institutional Histories
  1. Marilyn Brookwood. The Orphans of Davenport: Eugenics, the Great Depression, and the War over Children’s Intelligence (Harvard University Press, 2021).
  2. Karin Lorene Zipf, Bad Girls at Samarcand: Sexuality and Sterilization in a Southern Juvenile Reformatory (LSU Press, 2016).
 
Immigration and Eugenics
  1. Natalia Molina. “Fear and Loathing in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: The History of Mexicans as Medical Menaces, 1848 to the Present.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 41, no. 2 (Fall 2016).
 
Racial and Ethnic Disparities of Eugenics and Reproductive Care
  1. Sonya Borrero, Charity G. Moore, Li Qin, Eleanor B. Schwarz, Aletha Akers, Mitchell D. Creinin, and Said A. Ibrahim. “Unintended Pregnancy Influences Racial Disparity in Tubal Sterilization Rates.” Journal of General Internal Medicine 25, no. 2 (December 2009): 122–128.
  2. Sonya Borrero, Cara Nikolajski, Keri L. Rodriguez, Mitchell D. Creinin, Robert M. Arnold, and Said A. Ibrahim. “‘Everything I Know I Learned from my Mother ... or Not’: Perspectives of African-American and White Women on Decisions about Tubal Sterilization.” Journal of General Internal Medicine 24, no. 3 (March 2009): 312–319.
  3. Sonya B. Borrero, Matthew F. Reeves, Eleanor B. Schwarz, James E. Bost, Mitchell D. Creinin, and Said A. Ibrahim. “Race, Insurance Status, and Desire for Tubal Sterilization Reversal.” American Society for Reproductive Medicine 90, no. 2 (August 2008).
  4. Sonya Borrero, Eleanor B. Schwarz, Matthew F. Reeves, James E. Bost, Mitchell D. Creinin, and Said A. Ibrahim. “Race, Insurance Status, and Tubal Sterilization.” Obstetrics and Gynecology 109, no. 1 (January 2007).
  5. Christina J.J. Cackler, Valerie B. Shapiro, and Maureen Lahiff. “Female Sterilization and Poor Mental Health: Rates and Relatedness among American Indian and Alaska Native Women.” Women’s Health 26, no. 2 (2016): 168–175.
  6. Ginny Garcia-Alexander, Kelly Gonzales, and Elizabeth Carol Hauck. “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Desire for Reversal of Sterilization among U.S. Women.” Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations (31 March 2016): 1–16.
  7. Barbara Gurr. “Mothering in the Borderlands: Policing Native American Women’s Reproductive Healthcare.” International Journal of Sociology of the Family 37, no. 1 (Spring 2011).
  8. Josephine Jacobs and Maria Stanfors. “Racial and Ethnic Differences in U.S. Women’s Choice of Reversible Contraceptives, 1955–2010.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 45, no. 3 (2013): 139–147.
  9. Natalie Lira. ““Of Low Grade Mexican Parentage’: Race, Gender and Eugenic Sterilization in California, 1928–1952. Ph.D. diss. University of Michigan. 2015.
  10. Natalie Lira and Alexandra Minna Stern. “Mexican Americans and Eugenic Sterilization: Resisting Reproductive Injustice in California, 1920–1950.” Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 2 (Fall 2014): 9–34.
  11. Dorothy E. Roberts. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. New York: Vintage Books, 1999.
  12. Corinne H. Rocca and Cynthia C. Harper. “Do Racial and Ethnic Differences in Contraceptive Attitudes and Knowledge Explain Disparities in Method Use?” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 44, no. 3 (2012): 150–158.
  13. Gregory W. Rutecki. “Forced Sterilization of Native Americans: Later Twentieth Century Physician Cooperation with National Eugenic Policies?” Ethics and Medicine 27, no. 1 (Spring 2011).
  14. Grace Shih, Eric Vittinghoff, Jody Steinauer, and Christine Dehlendorf. “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Contraceptive Method Choice in California.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 43, no. 3 (2011): 173–180.
  15. Karina M. Shreffler, Julia McQuillan, Arthur L. Greil, and David R. Johnson. “Surgical Sterilization, Regret, and Race: Contemporary Patterns.” Social Science Research Journal 50 (March 2015): 31–45.
  16. Thomas W. Volscho. “Racism and Disparities in Women’s Use of the Depo-Provera Injection in the Contemporary USA.” Critical Sociology 37, no. 5 (2011): 673–688.
 
State Policy, Reparations, and Eugenics
  1. Elizabeth Catte. Pure America: Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia. Belt Publishing. 2021.
  2. Carolyn Said, “‘There’s no amount of money that can take away how I felt’: California Pays Reparations to Survivors of State-Sanctioned Sterilizations,” San Francisco Chronicle, 11 February 2022.
  3. Johanna Schoen. “Between Choice and Coercion: Women and the Politics of Sterilization in North Carolina, 1929–1975.” Journal of Women’s History 13, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 132–156.
  4. Alexandra Minna Stern, Nicole L. Novak, Natalie Lira, Kate O'Connor, Siobán Harlow, and Sharon Kardia. “California's Sterilization Survivors: An Estimate and Call for Redress.” American Journal of Public Health 107, No. 1 (January 2017): 50–54.
  5. Amy Vogel. “Regulating Degeneracy: Eugenic Sterilization in Iowa, 1911–1977.” The Annals of Iowa 54 (Winter 1995).
  6. Alex Wellerstein. “States of Eugenics: Institutions and Practices of Compulsory Sterilization in California." in Sheila Jasanoff, ed., Reframing Rights: Bioconstitutionalism in the Genetic Age. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011, 29–58.
 
Sterilization, Welfare, and Reproductive Control
  1. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee on Ethics. “Sterilization of Women: Ethical Issues and Considerations.” ​Committee Opinion 695 (April 2017): 1–8.
  2. Martha J. Bailey and Andrew Goodman-Bacon. “The War on Poverty’s Experiment in Public Medicine: Community Health Centers and the Morality of Older Americans.” American Economic Review 105, no. 3 (2015): 1067–1104.
  3. Sonya Borrero, Nikki Zite, Joseph E. Potter, and James Trussell. “Medicaid Policy on Sterilization—Anachronistic or Still Relevant?” The New England Journal of Medicine 370. (January 2014): 102–104.
  4. Sonya Borrero, Nikki Zite, Joseph E. Potter, James Trussell, and Kenneth Smith. “Potential Unintended Pregnancies Averted and Cost Savings Associated with a Revised Medicaid Sterilization Policy.” Contraception 88, no. 6 (December 2013): 691–696.
  5. Sonya Borrero, Kaleab Abebe, Christine Dehlendorf, Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, Mitchell D. Creinin, Cara Nikolajski, and Said Ibrahim. “Racial Variation in Tubal Sterilization Rates: Role of Patient-Level Factors.” Fertility and Sterility 95, no. 1 (January 2011): 17–22.
  6. Ben Bradford. “New Law: Repeal of '90s Welfare Rule Takes Effect.” Capital Public Radio. 2 January 2017.
  7. Benjamin P. Brown and Julie Chor. “Adding Injury to Injury: Ethical Implications of the Medicaid Sterilization Consent Regulations.” Obstetrics and Gynecology 123, no. 6 (June 2014): 1348–1351.
  8. Ben Christopher. “State Stops Refusing Extra Welfare to Moms Who Have More Children.” CALmatters. 11 January 2017.
  9. Molly Ladd-Taylor. "Saving Babies and Sterilizing Mothers: Eugenics and Welfare Politics in the Interwar United States." Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 4, no. 1. Spring 1997. 136–153.
  10. Gregory N. Price and William Darity. “The Economics of Race and Eugenic Sterilization in North Carolina: 1958–1968.” Economics and Human Biology 8 (2010): 261–272.
  11. Sabrina Tavernise. “Medicaid Finds Opportune Time to Offer Birth Control: Right after Birth.” New York Times. 28 October 2016.
  12. Justine P. Wu, Michael M. McKee, Kimberly S. Mckee, Michelle A. Meade, Melissa Plegue, and Ananda Sen. “Female Sterilization is More Common among Women with Physical and/or Sensory Disabilities than Women without Disabilities in the United States.” Disability and Health Journal 10, No. 3 (July 2017): 400–405.

Primary Sources
  1. Curtis H. Krishef. “State Laws on Marriage and Sterilization of the Mentally Retarded.” Mental Retardation 10, no. 3 (1972).
  2. Harry H. Laughlin. Eugenical Sterilization in the United States: A Report of the Psychopathic Laboratory of the Municipal Court of Chicago. Chicago: Psychopathic Laboratory of the Municipal Court of Chicago, 1922.