Comment on Virginia to compensate victims of forced sterilizations

Virginia to compensate victims of forced sterilizations

Advocates for the surviving victims won a three-year fight Thursday when the Virginia General Assembly budgeted $400,000 to compensate them at the rate of $25,000 each. Eugenics is the now-discredited movement that sought to improve the genetic composition of humankind by preventing those considered "defective" from reproducing. Virginia's Sterilization Act became a model for similar legislation passed around the country and the world, including Nazi Germany. Nationwide, 65,000 Americans were sterilized in 33 states, including more than 20,000 in California alone, said Mark Bold, executive director of the Christian Law Institute, which has been advocating the cause of the Virginia victims since 2013. Revulsion over the state's actions brought together lawmakers from across the political spectrum, united in the belief that it was time to write the final page in a shameful chapter of the state's history. The compensation measure was sponsored by Del.

 

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