California tries to find 600 victims of forced sterilization for reparations
State plans to pay $15,000 to those sterilized against their will in 1930s eugenics movement and more recently in state prisons
About 600 people alive today can’t have children because California’s government sterilized them either against their will or without their knowledge, and now the state is trying to find them so it can pay them at least $15,000 each in reparations.
But after a year of searching, the state has approved just 51 people for payments out of 310 applications. There is one year left to look before the $4.5m program shuts down and the challenges remain steep. State officials have denied 103 people, closed three incomplete applications and are processing 153 others – but they say it is difficult to verify the applications as many records have been lost or destroyed.
