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Nothing brought Olivia more joy than when her daughter and grandchild visited her group home in Brooklyn in the early 2000s. Each hug and shared laugh lit up her face with pride like any mother’s, grounded in love, family, and connection.
Olivia’s story should not be remarkable, but history almost denied her the chance to experience her family. For more than a century, Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), like Olivia, were subject to forced sterilization — a brutal legacy of eugenics aimed at erasing their place in our communities and families.
While we have made strides to protect the bodily autonomy of people with disabilities, their rights are once again at risk due to new guidance issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggesting that sterilization should be considered among treatment options for children, adolescents, and young adults with I/DD. It has sent shock waves through the diverse community of carers and advocates. While the guidelines address various considerations and emphasize the importance of carefully evaluating each case, even the suggestion that it could be reasonable in limited numbers of cases could have serious, even deadly, consequences, especially when used by under-resourced caregivers and already burdened health care providers...