Medicare Barely Covers Contraception, Making Birth Control Unaffordable for Many Disabled Women: New Study
Nearly a century ago, a notorious 1927 Supreme Court case called Buck v. Bell legally sanctioned the forced sterilization of people deemed “feebleminded,” a category that explicitly included people with disabilities. The case originated with 17-year-old Carrie Buck, whose state mental institution sought to forcibly sterilize her after she was raped and became pregnant. Disturbingly, according to the National Women’s Law Center, 31 states and Washington, D.C. still have forced sterilization laws on their books. Their existence underscores the deeply entrenched ableism within American reproductive policy.
