California to Pay Sterilization Victims an estimated $25,000 each: More than 60,000 people across the United States were forcibly sterilized by state-run programs throughout the 20th century.
Leonard Bisel was 15 when the state of California decided that he should not have children, threatening to lock him up and force him to do hard labor if he did not submit to sterilization. In the middle of his operation, recalled Bisel, now 88, he woke up. “It was really painful,” he said, “and … Read more