In the summer of 1973, Minnie Lee and Mary Alice were taken from their home, cut open and sterilized against their will and without the informed consent of their parents by a physician working in a federally funded clinic. Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf were two African-American sisters who, at ages 12 and 14, respectively, were involuntarily sterilized by a federally funded family planning clinic in Montgomery, Alabama.
The Relf case would change the course of history: A lawsuit filed on their behalf, Relf v. Weinberger, helped reveal that more than 100,000 mostly Black, Latina and Indigenous women were sterilized under U.S. government programs over decades. Their case became a significant focal point in the national conversation about sterilization abuse, particularly within marginalized communities, when a class-action lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This incident highlighted the broader issues of eugenics and reproductive rights, drawing attention to the systemic injustices faced by African Americans and other minority groups in the context of government-funded health programs.
It also officially ended this practice and forced doctors to obtain informed consent before performing sterilization procedures — though as it would turn out, forced sterilizations by state governments would continue into the 21st century.
Source: https://www.bunkhistory.org/resources/10105
