California is looking to provide 600 people with $15,000 in reparations after the state sterilized people against their will as part of two different programs.
Two groups of people are eligible for the money: Those sterilized by the government during the so-called eugenics movement that peaked during the 1930s and a smaller group who were victimized while in state prisons about a decade ago.
California officials are looking for victims of government-forced or coerced sterilization. The state has $4.5 million in reparations to divide up among.
The eugenics movement sought to prevent some people with mental illness or physical disabilities from being able to have children. California had the nation’s largest forced sterilization program, sterilizing about 20,000 people beginning in 1909. But as recently as 2013, California sterilized over 140 women in its prison system.