Mass Sterilization

A Massachusetts judge revives a favorite old practice of the state's elites.
By Daniel J. Flynn
1.31.12

Can a judge, without even holding a hearing, order a woman sterilized in a state where compulsory sterilization has never been the law?

As North Carolina prepares to pay reparations to victims of its decades-long eugenics campaign, Massachusetts strangely enters a sterilization debate that most had thought long over. Norfolk County Probate and Family Court Judge Christina L. Harms earlier this month ordered that a bipolar and schizophrenic woman be "coaxed, bribed, or even enticed…by ruse" to abort her pregnancy and undergo sterilization. If the mentally ill woman were sane, the judge determined, she "would not choose to be delusional" and therefore, she would choose abortion.

Does "our bodies, our choice" still apply when we are not in our right minds?

The Michael Dukakis-appointed jurist abruptly retired following the controversial decision and a state appeals court overturned part of her ruling. "We reverse that portion of the order requiring sterilization," wrote Judge Andrew R. Grainger. "No party requested this measure, none of the attendant procedural requirements has been met, and the judge appears to have simply produced the requirement out of thin air." The reversal crucially noted, "In ordering sterilization sua sponte and without notice, the probate judge failed to provide the basic due process that is constitutionally required." The abortion order was also subsequently overturned by a separate court. the rest