Justice for Victims of Sterilization Act; established, Fund created. (HB1529)

Introduced By

Del. Bob Marshall (R-Manassas) with support from co-patrons Del. Bob Brink (D-Arlington), Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington), Del. Jim Scott (D-Merrifield), and Del. Vivian Watts (D-Annandale)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Justice for Victims of Sterilization Act. Establishes the Justice for Victims of Sterilization Act to provide compensation to persons involuntarily sterilized between 1924 and 1979. The bill creates the Justice for Victims of Sterilization Compensation Fund to be administered by the Department of Social Services. Under the bill, claims payments are limited to $50,000 per claim. The provisions of the bill shall expire on July 1, 2018. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/03/2013Committee
01/03/2013Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/13 13101227D
01/03/2013Referred to Committee on Appropriations
01/08/2013Assigned App. sub: Health & Human Resources
01/24/2013Impact statement from DPB (HB1529)
02/05/2013Left in Appropriations

Comments

ACLU-VA Women's Rights and Reproductive Freedom, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

The ACLU of Virginia supports this bill because it compensates victims of the shameful practice of forced sterilization. Virginia’s legal sterilization program was enacted into law in 1924 – the same year the legislature adopted the Racial Integrity Act that prohibited interracial marriages. It is estimated that between 7,200 and 8,300 people were sterilized in Virginia from 1927-1979 because they were deemed by society at the time to be unworthy or unfit to procreate. In most cases, the individuals were “patients” at state mental institutions who were sent there because of alleged mental illness, physical deformity, “feeble-mindedness,” or simply because they were homeless. Twenty-two percent of the individuals sterilized were African Americans (about equal to the population in the state at the time) and two-thirds were women. Many of those sterilized were not even told they were being sterilized, but instead given some other explanation for their operation. We wholeheartedly support the effort to compensate victims of the state’s forced sterilization law.

jannie pannell writes:

What about the females that was forced to have sterilizations in 1989