When a courageous young woman and a radical lawyer discover a pattern of illegal involuntary sterilizations in California’s women’s prison system, they take to the courtroom to wage a near-impossible battle against the Department of Corrections.
Mass sterilization of women dates back to the early 1900s as it was used as population control targeting mainly black and indigenous women. As the federal law prohibits this procedure without the patient’s consent, prisons across the country have been sterilizing women for years while the state secretly funds it. This documentary not only exposes the ugly truth about the inhumane treatment of prisoners but the immoral practices of healthcare professionals working with state officials who describe the procedure as “cheaper than welfare.”
After killing her abusive husband, Kelli Dillon was sentenced to prison at Central California Women’s Facility where she was taken into surgery and never told she was sterilized. When she began having symptoms of menopause, she retrieved her medical records only to discover the terrible truth. As she began speaking with other women who admitted to having undergone the procedure, it became apparent something corrupt was happening. After contacting attorney and activist Cynthia Chandler, co-founder of Justice Now. a non-profit organization that provides advocacy and legal resources to assist people in California women’s prisons, the story broke and Kelli was the first to sue the prison for damages.
Their journey was not an easy one as they were up against a very powerful system. With the help of other inmates who were brave enough to tell their stories, the case finally resulted in a bill meant to end inmate sterilization for good. Unfortunately, despite the ban, many correctional facilities still sterilize women for birth control purposes and the doctors involved are never held accountable. I highly recommend this film, it is such a powerful story that reminds us just how far we have to go concerning women’s rights in this country. However, I was relieved it ended strongly with Justice Now remaining focused on this issue, fighting for reparations dating back to 1909.
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Now playing at the 2020 New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival
