Partners
We’re thrilled to be partnering with organizations across the country who are on the forefront of reproductive justice, prison abolition and racial justice organizing. We encourage you to learn more about them and support their work. To find out more about each organization, click on their logo.
CCWP
CCWP is a grassroots social justice organization, with members inside and outside prison, that challenges the institutional violence imposed on women, transgender people, and communities of color by the prison industrial complex (PIC). We see the struggle for racial and gender justice as central to dismantling the PIC and we prioritize the leadership of the people, families, and communities most impacted in building this movement.
California Latinas for Reproductive Justice
California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ) is a statewide organization committed to honoring the experiences of Latinas/xs to uphold our dignity, our bodies, sexuality, and families. We build Latinas’/xs’ power and cultivate leadership through community education, policy advocacy, and community-informed research to achieve reproductive justice.
Black Women’s Health Imperative
BWHI targets the most pressing health issues that affect Black women and girls in the U.S. through investments in evidence based strategies, bold programs and advocacy outreach on health policies.”
Black Women for Wellness
Black Women for Wellness is committed to the health and well-being of Black women and girls through health education, empowerment and advocacy.
Back to the Basics
Back to the Basics’ Mission is to rebuild and restore community empowerment, safety, and economic wellness by providing education and resources that are accessible and offered to all members. We offer life education and management workshops that will assist to rebuild and re-empower lives.
SisterReach
SisterReach is an advocate for the reproductive autonomy of women & teens of color, poor & rural women, LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming people.
The National Institute for Reproductive Health
The National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) builds power at the state and local level to change public policy, galvanize public support, and normalize women’s decisions about abortion and contraception.
The Center for Reproductive Rights
The Center for Reproductive Rights uses the power of law to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world.
The Women & Justice Project
The Women & Justice Project (WJP) advances the leadership and builds the power of women directly impacted by incarceration to transform the criminal legal system.
PRoject South
Project South was founded as the Institute to Eliminate Poverty & Genocide in 1986. Our work is rooted in the legacy of the Southern Freedom Movement, and four primary work areas achieve our mission of cultivating strong social movements in the South powerful enough to contend with some of the most pressing and complicated social, economic, and political problems we face today.
ACCESS Women’s Health Justice
ACCESS was founded in 1993 by clinic escorts who witnessed the many barriers women were facing – especially young or poor women – to actually obtain an abortion. The vision for ACCESS was not only to provide information and practical support on all aspects of reproductive health, but to build a community actively working to meet the real needs of women.
The ACLU
For nearly one hundred years, ACLU lawyers have been at the center of one history-making court case after another, participating in more Supreme Court cases than any other private organization. With attorneys nationwide, we handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated.
National Advocates for Pregnant Women
National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) works to secure the human and civil rights, health and welfare of all people, focusing particularly on pregnant and parenting women, and those who are most likely to be targeted for state control and punishment — low income women, women of color, and drug-using women.
The Promise of Justice Initiative
The Promise of Justice Initiative is a non-profit organization that advocates for criminal justice reform, civil rights protections, the abolition of the death penalty, and ending other excessive inhumane punishments. PJI works alongside impacted men and women seeking fair and just treatment under the law.
Young Women’s Freedom Center
Young Women’s Freedom Center (YWFC) is a leadership and advocacy organization led by systems-involved young and adult women and transgender gender non-conforming (TGNC) people of color who have grown up in poverty, worked in the underground street economy, and have been criminalized by social services such as foster care, welfare, and the mental health systems. By offering safety, sister- & siblinghood, economic opportunities, accessible education and healing, we build self-determination, confidence and self-worth.
Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) is a statewide coalition of over 75 grassroots organizations that is reducing the number of people in prisons and jails, shrinking the imprisonment system, and shifting public spending from corrections and policing to human services.
Survived and Punished
Survived and Punished is a national organizing project to end the criminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide.
Tools for Survivors
Have you experienced medical abuse or lost your right to make choices about your reproductive health? We would love to hear more about it and share a few resources for sterilization survivors.
BACKGROUND
If you are a survivor of forced sterilization, you are not alone. Throughout the country and the world, over the past few decades, thousands of pregnant women, persons with disabilities, HIV/AIDS patients, and other vulnerable have been victim to modern-day eugenics in many states across the country, and around the world.
1909, California passed a racist, eugenicist law authorizing involuntary sterilization, resulting in the most active program in the nation’s history and the sterilization of more than 20,000 people. The state’s program targeted persons incarcerated in state institutions and lasted until 1979. Research indicates that the practices disproportionately impacted Latina women and girls.
Despite uncovering these atrocities, abuses persist today. In August 2020, whistleblower Dawn Wooten, a long-time nurse, reported practices leading to an investigation of a pattern of nonconsensual gynecological procedures, including hysterectomies, performed on detainees at the Irwin federal immigration detention center in Georgia.
In Nashville, Tennessee, between 2010 and 2015, prosecutors had used sterilization to bargain in plea deals with female defendants. Between 1974 and 1979, the state of North Carolina sterilized more than 7,600, including mentally challenged persons, resulting in successful litigation and a $10 M fund for survivors in 2014. In 2019, South Africa's Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) uncovered sterilization procedures targeting Black women who were mostly HIV positive. And in recent years, Virginia deprived as many as 8,000 mentally ill, epileptic and other vulnerable citizens of their ability to conceive children. It has not yet addressed these grievances beyond Governor Werner’s apology in 2002.
The record reveals that these abusive practices extend beyond prison walls. They are not confined to one area or demographic group. Forced sterilization and the other practices that deprive persons of the right to make choices about their reproductive lives have impacted tens of thousands of vulnerable persons. In most cases, survivors are still seeking their right to redress for the suffering they have endured.
SUPPORT THE CALIFORNIA REPARATIONS BILL
Would you like to get involved with the fight for reparations for survivors for forced sterilization?
We are working with California Latinos for Justice (CLRJ) to advance AB 1007 in the California Senate. The bill seeks to establish a program to compensate verified survivors who were sterilized in a California State institution. The proposal also requires placement of plaques at designated sites that acknowledge the forced sterilization of thousands of Californians, and a traveling historical exhibit and other educational opportunities about eugenics law in the state.
HEALING AND JUSTICE
Our partners, and many other organizations, are working to heal those identifying as women and their communities from traumatic health practices and reproductive injustice. The following list may serve as a starting point if you are seeking connection, rehabilitation, and care within a frame that recognizes your right to equality and justice.