Welcome to Litsy!

Dad: I‘m going to use my fortune to force my daughter to have a child.
Mom: I‘m going to use parental privilege to force my daughter to be sterilized.
Power Elite & other Jerk Faces: We are going to use this case to reinforce our claim that we should control the bodies of women and entire groups of people who we don‘t like.

Moderately interesting. I wasn't familiar with Ann Cooper Hewitt before reading this. She was mistreated by her mother in many ways before the most egregious abuse - involuntary sterilization.

A couple of chapters at the end covered some of the history of women's fight for reproductive freedom - both freedom from unwanted sterilization and freedom to use birth control. Not really new info for me but always good to be reminded.

I enjoyed this book about Ann Cooper Hewitt, whose mother had her sterilized in a failed attempt to gain control of her fortune. She attempted criminal charges against her mother and the doctors who performed the surgery, but wasn‘t successful, in part due to laws allowing the “mentally unfit” to be involuntarily sterilized. The book goes into the eugenics movement from past to present. However, it felt disorganized and at times lacking context.

Decided to go with this one 👍🏻

This is such a sad/tragic story. It's also disturbing that this was happening in just the last century. Neither of the female characters are very likeable but you can't help but feel sorry for Ann. The arguments made for her sterilization & the way the court validates them are stomach churning. I didn't realize that the eugenics program used by the Nazi's was influenced by research & practice in the US. A valuable read for anyone. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

In 1934, at the height of eugenics, heiress Ann Cooper Hewitt‘s mother had her sterilized claiming that she was an oversexed imbecile when she was neither. Mom just wanted her inheritance. This book cover‘s Ann‘s life, the trial of the doctors who sterilized her, and also the broader issues of forced and coerced sterilization in the US up through today. The lack of control women still have over whether or when they have children so angers me!