The forced sterilization of the Relf girls, Mary Alice, and Minnie Lee, serves as an example of medical abuse and malpractice in black women. On July 1, 1973, the two girls were forced out of their home by nurses and coerced into signing documents that changed their lives forever. Sterilization laws were implemented to “keep welfare low, reduce poverty, and improve the gene pool by preventing the ‘mentally deficit’ from reproducing” (Villarosa). Unfortunately, the Relf girls happened to fit all three criteria according to the clinic, which was the leading factor in their rights to bear children being stripped away from them. The Relf vs. Weinberger case helped uncover more than 100,000 minority (mostly black, Latina, and Indigenous women) sterilizations throughout the decades.

The two teenage girls at the time were receiving birth control shots from a clinic named ‘Montgomery Family Planning Clinic’ The nurses had come to the house claiming they wanted to give the girls more shots. Still, instead, they were, “carted into an operating room, where surgeons irrevocably robbed them of their right to bear children” (Davis 1). Coming from an impoverished background, The Relf’s mother had unknowingly consented to sign documentation, because of their inability to read and write, that would later be used to prove that they did agree to the procedure. Racism and medical ethics are being questioned due to mistreatment and forced complacency in a supposed safe environment.

The argument that the sterilization had nothing to do with the girl’s race is that the nurses who brought them into the clinic were also assumingly black: “Clinic employees noted, however, that the nurses who took the girls from their home were also black” ( Ayres 10).  The reason for their sterilization was not because of their race, but rather that they might have children with venereal disease. On the contrary, statistics demonstrate that approximately 65% of women being sterilized in North Carolina during this time were black and the other 35% were white (Davis). Forced sterilizations had a racist undertone, as seen in the case of Fannie Lou Hammer who had her hysterectomy removed unknowingly in 1961 during an operation to remove a tumor. The federal government had allowed the mistreatment of minority groups to go on for far too long.

The biological parents of the Relf girls were both unable to provide proper care and finances for the girls involved. The father had a disability, and the mother was illiterate. That being the case, they were assigned to a social worker who had been responsible for providing the girls with care. One of the girls, Mary Alice, was declared “mentally incompetent”, by a government-funded – diagnostic facility, which inherently “flagged them”. The lawsuit was implemented by the family to prevent government officials from taking away the right to motherhood from children. The case uncovered similar practices that were covered up and financed by the U.S. government: “The Relf case led to changes in laws, regulations, and guidelines regarding forced or coerced sterilizations, the question of compensation for the victims remained” (Villarosa). The Relf family had received no compensation for the damages bestowed upon the girls. It was not until the 21^st century that states finally issued money to the survivors of forced or coerced sterilization. The Relf case is an example of the history of medical malpractice of black women and the unethical practices that were displayed throughout history. 

Work Cited: 

Davis, Angela. “The Historical Context: Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights.” Race, Poverty & the Environment, vol. 4, no. 2, 1993, pp. 21–23. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41554117. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

B.DRUMMOND AYRES JR.Special to The New York. "Racism, Ethics and Rights at Issue in Sterilization Case: Money Suspended Nazi Usage Cited Judge Called Biased." New York Times (1923-), Jul 02, 1973, pp. 10. ProQuest, http://ulib.iupui.edu/cgi-bin/proxy.pl?url=http://search.proquest.com/hi....

Villarosa, Linda. “The Long Shadow of Eugenics in America.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 June 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/06/08/magazine/eugenics-movement-america.html.