North Carolina Eugenics Program

Recently, North Carolina announced that its task force recommended paying victims of forced sterilization a one time sum of $50,000.

The fact that North Carolina forcibly sterilized approximately 7600 people, between 1929 and 1974, should freeze anyone's blood.  Government, at any level, should never have held such power over the reproductive rights of individuals. 

The actions of the state of North Carolina are terrifying enough, but the truly troubling aspect of this is precedent.  Once a government has performed an act, it has set precedent and precedent can come back to bite citizens in the future.

Why does this concern me?  Simple.  There are folks who advocate population controls, whether it be licensing for potential parents or forced sterilization after an arbitrary number of children.  Such people would love to inflict their fears upon the individual's freedom to choose to have children.

Given the precedent that many states, according to CNN, once had such programs, it's not hard to see certain militant individuals pushing legislation through to bring such tactics into the 21st Century.