One day in history: involuntary sterilization and rewriting abortion law
On 02 May 1927, the Supreme Court legalized involuntary sterilization, a ruling that has never been challenged. On 02 May 2022, Politico released a draft Court opinion that would overturn the right to an abortion.
On the 95th anniversary of the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) decision upholding the involuntary sterilization of a Virginia woman deemed “feeble minded,” someone leaked a draft decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.
The timing is striking.
The woman at the center of the 1927 decision, Carrie Buck(1906–1983), had become pregnant after the nephew of her foster parents allegedly raped her the summer she would turn 17.
Abortion was illegal in all 48 states in the 1920s. Today it is legal, due to the 1973 SCOTUS decision in Roe v Wade, which struck down a Texas law that criminalized abortion.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., a Roman Catholic, authored the leaked draft decision which would return the legality of abortion to the states without an act of Congress.
We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.
