Forced

Sterilization

Damn Damschroeder

HB 591: Any female receiving state aid for the support of more than two dependent, illegitimate children shall be required to submit to sterilization procedures. Such procedures shall be performed at a time and in a facility to be determined by the department of public welfare, and all expenses thereof shall be borne by that department.

HB 626: No parent or other person charged with the maintenance of a legitimate or illegitimate child under eighteen years of age, or of a physically or mentally handicapped child under twenty-one years of age, nor the husband of a pregnant woman, living in this state, shall fail to provide such child or woman with the necessary or proper home, care, food and clothing. Upon conviction... of a father who has willfully falled and refused to support his minor children, the court... shall issue such orders as are appropriate to carry out medical or surgical procedures necessary to sterilize such offender...

If these bills are passed, those on welfare who will not submit to sterilization under the conditions listed will be cut off welfare. The bills, which were submitted by Repr. Gene Damschroder on April 12 and 13 of 1973, have a status which is not very threatening at this time. They were introduced into the Ohio House over a year ago and have still not been referred to a committee, which means they are

not being considered. But psychological violence to the poor is done when two such bills are even introduced, and it is well to be informed and on guard against them.

Popular myths

about

welfare recipients allow

Welfare clients have been the target for many kinds of misinformation. Most common among these is the notion that people on welfare could work and support themselves if they wanted to, but are too lazy to do so. A special study done for former President Lyndon B. Johnson revealed that "less than 1%" of the nation's 7.3 million welfare clients in 1967 were employable. Some 50,000 were trainable, but the programs for training were not available, nor were they expected to be made available.

According to the "Report of the Mayor's Commis sion on the Crisis in Welfare in Cleveland" published in 1969, the following breakdown on those receiving welfare in Cuyahoga County is:

64% are children under the age of 18 18% are mothers or grandmothers caring for dependent children

10% are elderly (many in nursing homes) 4.5% are permanently or totally disabled and/or blind

3% (approximately) are unemployed males,

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The intent of these bills is sexist and racist-sexist because the welfare rolls are made up mostly of children and mothers or grandmothers caring for children, and thus women are the ones more likely to be sterilized rather than the men; racist because proportionately there are more poor blacks on welfare than poor whites, although poor whites would definitely be hurt as well.

Reports of involuntary sterilizations have since been discovered throughout the South. And they all have a common theme. Each was obtained by coercion, threats, or misrepresentation.

The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare continues to issue unconstitutional regulations concerning the sterilization of illiterates and the mentally incompetent, allowing a policy of illegally sterilizing the poor. These regulations are under attack by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in what is shaping up as one of the most significant court tests of this century on health care for poor people.

Sterilization of the poor is one of the most hideous of crimes. One of the great issues of the German Nuremberg trials was the Nazi responsibility for sterilization of countless numbers of victims.

You can assist in the effort against forced sterilization by sending a tax-deductible contri-

bution to J. Bond, SPLC, Inc., Box 548, Mont-

gomery, Alabama 36101.

In Cleveland there is a Committee Against Racist Forced Sterlization. For information, call 391-2059 or 249-6382.

In Ohio, you can write your congresswomen and congressmen against Gene Damschroder's bills.

bills like this to surface

Another popular myth concerning welfare recipients

in that clients have children in order to obtain more money from the state. According to the Commission's report, the extra payment a mother received for a child in 1968 averaged about $3.50 a week. A family on welfare with three children would not receive additional rent money unless the family size increased to 10. If the family size increased from three to nine, the state could pay $8 a month more for all utilities. For the family of four on a budget of $193 per month, $70 might be applied to rent and $20 to utilities, leaving only $103 a month or less than $25 a week for food, clothing, transportation, school supplies, and all other incidentals. With today's inflation the prospects for those on welfare are worse,

Much of the public ire toward the welfare system

is directed toward mothers in need, the Commission declared. 90% of AFDC families in Cuyahoga County had a woman as the sole head of the family and almost all of the 90% had at least one child under six years of age. Thus in order for the woman to take full-time employment, if she could get it, some provision would have to be made for the children. Only 10% of the working mothers used day care facilities for child care, both because of the high cost and the lack of adequate facilities. The same factors are at work today. Forced sterilization thus is meant to punish a woman for her poverty, a crime that is not hers but that of capitalist society.

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