Victims of forced sterilizations to be compensated

More than 7,000 Virginians were involuntarily sterilized between the years 1924 and 1979 under the Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act. Advocates for the surviving victims won a three-year battle Thursday when the Virginia General Assembly allocated $400,000 to compensate them at the rate of $25,000 each. There are only 11 eleven surviving victims. Two have died within the past year. Eugenics is the now-defunct movement that sought to enhance the genetic composition of humankind by preventing those considered “defective” from reproducing. Virginia’s Sterilization Act became a blueprint for similar legislation passed around the country and the world, including Nazi Germany. 65,000 Americans nationwide were sterilized in thirty-three states, including more than 20,000 in California alone. Virginia is the second state to authorize reparations for victims of the eugenics program. North Carolina approved payments of $50,000 for each victim in 2013. The Virginia sterilizations were executed at six state institutions, including what is now known as Central Virginia Training Center in Lynchburg. The facility used to be called the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feeble Minded. The compensation measure was supported by Delegate Ben Cline, a conservative Republican from Rockbridge County, and Delegate Patrick Hope, a liberal Democrat from Arlington County.