Abstract
My comments on the papers “Reproductive Hazards in the Workplace” by Joan Bertin and “Interference with Reproductive Choice” by Nancy Gertner are based on some of my experiences in the movement for an improved consent process concerning sterilization procedures.1 The movement arose from a growing outrage around the country following the disclosures of the Relf case in 1973.2 A notorious case, it involved two sisters, Mary Alice, then 14, and Minnie Lee Relf, who was 12 at the time of their sterilizations in Montgomery, Alabama in June 1973. As the girls’ mother described in court, two representatives of the federally financed Montgomery Community Action Agency called on her requesting consent to give the children some birth control shots. Believing that the agency had her daughters’ best interest and health in mind, she consented by putting an X on paper.3
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Notes and References
See generally H. Rodriguez-Trias, “Women and the Health Care System—Sterilization Abuse, Two Lectures,” The Women’s Center, Barnard College, New York, 1978;
H. Rodriguez-Trias, “The Women’s Health Movement,” a chapter in Reforming Medicine, V. Seidel and R. Seidel, Eds., 1984.
Relf vs. Weinberger, 372 Federal Supplement 1196, 1199 (D.D.C. 1974).
Jack Slater, “Sterilization: Newest Threat to the Poor,” Ebony, October 1973, p. 150.
Relf vs. Weinberger, 372 Federal Supplement 1196, 1199 (D.D.C. 1974).
Slater, p. 152.
Joan Kelly, “Sterilization and Civil Rights,” Rights (publication of the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee), September/October 1977.
Claudia Dreifus, “Sterilizing the Poor,” The Progressive, December 1975, p. 13.
Robert E. McGarraugh, Jr., “Sterilization Without Consent: Teaching Hospital Violations of HEW Regulations: A Report by Public Citizens’ Health Research Group,” January 1975 (prepared for the Public Citizens’ Health Research Group, Washington, D.C.).
Elissa Krauss, “Hospital Survey on Sterilization Policies: Reproductive Freedom Project,” ACLU Reports, March 1975.
Carl W. Tyler, Jr., “An Assessment of Policy Compliance with the Federal Control of Sterilization,” June 1975 (available from the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Ga.).
Guidelines on Sterilization for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.
New York City Council Public Law #37.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Guidelines on Sterilization. Federal Register, Volume 43, Number 217.
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© 1989 Rutgers, The State University
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Rodriguez-Trias, H. (1989). A Model for Advocacy: From Proposals to Policy. In: Cohen, S., Taub, N. (eds) Reproductive Laws for the 1990s. Contemporary Issues in Biomedicine, Ethics, and Society. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3710-5_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3710-5_17
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