In early 20th century California, forced sterilizations were an unnervingly widespread practice

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In early 20th century California, forced sterilizations were an unnervingly widespread, if mostly secret, practice. From Audrey Clare Farley (@AudreyCFarley).

How One Woman’s Forced Sterilization Led to a Mayhem Charge and Exposed a Secret World of Medical...
In January 1936, twenty-one-year-old Ann Cooper Hewitt, the well-known San Francisco heiress, called a press conference alongside her attorney and announced that she was suing her mother, Maryon Co…
crimereads.com
9:30 AM · Apr 20, 2021

https://crimereads.com/how-one-womans-forced-sterilization-led-to-a-mayhem-charge-and-exposed-a-secret-world-of-medical-atrocities/

Hewitt, the well-known San Francisco heiress, called a press conference alongside her attorney and announced that she was suing her mother, Maryon Cooper Hewitt. Ann claimed that she had been secretly sterilized at the behest of her mother, who paid two doctors to perform the procedure in order to prevent her from claiming an inheritance under her father’s estate. The allegations were explosive news and immediately caught the attention of San Francisco District Attorney, Matthew Brady. (Excerpted from The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewittby Audrey Clare Farley.)

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Shortly after Ann’s press conference in San Francisco, the district attorney got wind of her case. At first, Matthew Brady’s eyes widened as he read the girl’s accusations in the San Francisco Examiner. Then his mind began to turn. Here was an opportunity to charge four individuals (Mrs. Cooper Hewitt, the doctor who ordered the operation, the doctor who performed it, and the alienist) with a felony not often encountered outside of legal textbooks: mayhem. This criminal charge was reserved for cases involving the act of disabling or disfiguring an individual, and it was punishable by up to fourteen years in prison.

Brady immediately conferred with his assistant, August Fourtner, and Police Inspector George Engler about the matter. The group’s cursory research revealed that over ten thousand individuals in the state had been sterilized in public institutions since California had passed a law authorizing sterilization in 1909. There existed no record of the number of sterilizations performed in private practice, though some legal experts predicted the number was large. The law didn’t authorize these procedures, meaning that there could be hundreds—or even thousands—of individuals like Ann, whose rights had been violated.

The most frequent techniques for sterilization were vasectomy and salpingectomy, which Ann had undergone. Castration and spaying were generally avoided, as these procedures didn’t merely render individuals incapable of producing children—they desexualized them. This last fact might present a conundrum for the San Francisco prosecutors, Brady realized. Mayhem cases hinged on proving that one’s body had been maimed, rendered useless, or substantially changed in physical character. What if defendants argued that the primary purpose of sex was pleasure, rather than procreation, and therefore that the operation did not amount to an act of mayhem?

*snip*

[SoonerPride]

1. Wow. This is fascinating and terrifyng as well.

Interesting reading that's for sure.