Next thing he will advocate is sterilizing them to cut down on breeding
They been there and done that:
http://www.h-net.org/~women/bibs/bibl-forcedster.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/gendersexuality/tp/Forced-Sterilization-History.htm
1897
Michigan's state legislature becomes the first in the country to pass a forced sterilization law, but it is vetoed by the governor.
1901
Legislators in Pennsylvania attempt to pass a eugenic forced sterilization law, but it stalls.
1907
Indiana becomes the first state in the country to successfully pass a mandatory forced sterilization law, in this case impacting the "feebleminded" (mentally handicapped).
1909
California and Washington pass mandatory sterilization laws.
1922
Harry Hamilton Laughlin, director of the Eugenics Research Office, proposes a federal mandatory sterilization law. Like Lincecum's proposal, it never really goes anywhere.
1927
In
Buck v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court rules (8-1) that laws mandating the sterilization of the mentally handicapped do not violate the Constitution. Writing for the majority, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes makes an explicitly eugenic argument:
It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.
1936
Public domain. Image courtesy Wikipedia.
Nazi propaganda defends Germany's forced sterilization program by citing the United States as an ally in the eugenic movement, and its laws as proof of its status as same. World War II, and the atrocities committed by the Nazi government, would rapidly change U.S. attitudes towards eugenics.
1942
In
Skinner v. Oklahoma, the U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously against an Oklahoma law targeting some felons for sterilization (the plaintiff, Jack Skinner, was a chicken thief) while excluding white-collar criminals. The majority opinion, written by Justice William O. Douglas, rejects the broad eugenic mandate previously outlined in
Buck v. Bell (1927):
trict scrutiny of the classification which a State makes in a sterilization law is essential, lest unwittingly, or otherwise, invidious discriminations are made against groups or types of individuals in violation of the constitutional guaranty of just and equal laws.
1970
The Nixon administration dramatically increases Medicaid-funded sterilization of low-income Americans, primarily Americans of color. While these sterilizations are voluntary as a matter of policy, anecdotal evidence later suggests that they are often involuntary as a matter of practice as patients are often misinformed, or left uninformed, regarding the nature of the procedures that they have agreed to undergo.
1979
A survey conducted by Family Planning Perspectives finds that approximately 70% of American hospitals fail to adequately follow U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines regarding informed consent in cases of sterilization.
1981
Oregon performs the last legal forced sterilization in U.S. history.
Public domain. Image courtesy Wikipedia.
