New Mexico launches investigation of forced sterilization of Native American women
Source: AP
Updated 12:00 PM EST, February 21, 2026
EDGEWOOD, N.M. (AP) — In the 1970s, the U.S. agency that provides health care to Native Americans sterilized thousands of women without their full and informed consent, depriving them of the opportunity to start or grow families. Decades later, the state of New Mexico is set to investigate that troubling history and its lasting harm.
New Mexico legislators approved a measure this week to have the state Indian Affairs Department and the Commission on the Status of Women examine the history, scope and continuing impact of forced and coerced sterilizations of women of color by the Indian Health Service and other providers. The findings are expected to be reported to the governor by the end of 2027.
“It’s important for New Mexico to understand the atrocities that took place within the borders of our state,” said state Sen. Linda Lopez, one of the legislation’s sponsors.
It’s not the first state to confront its past. In 2023, Vermont launched a truth and reconciliation commission to study forced sterilization of marginalized groups including Native Americans. In 2024, California began paying reparations to people who had been sterilized without their consent in state-run prisons and hospitals.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/indigenous-native-american-women-sterilization-new-mexico-9d47dbafd09b61656b4251a776463c23
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As the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum in the 1950s, white southern politicians, local officials and doctors saw sterilizing Black women as a key way to maintain the power of white supremacy amid the erosion of the Jim Crow South. Courtesy of Truman State University's Harry H. Laughlin Papers, Pickler Memorial Library Special Collections and Museums, via National Museum of American History
