Kelli Dillon's life was altered drastically by a wrongful surgical procedure in which her ovaries and part of her fallopian tubes were removed under the pretext of a biopsy for cervical cancer. At an event launching a quilt commemorating nearly 600 victims of forced sterilization in California prisons, Dillon expressed the deep pain and violation felt by those affected. The quilt, created with personal touches by victims, symbolizes healing amidst a history where 20,000 women were sterilized unjustly between 1909 and 1979, often without proper consent and often bypassing laws meant to prevent such abuses.
It wasn't until a lawyer helped her gain access to her medical records that she saw what had happened: A prison doctor who told her he needed to perform a biopsy to check for cervical cancer had actually removed her ovaries and part of her fallopian tubes.
Dillon, along with six other attendees, were there for the unveiling of a painstaking project: a quilt honoring the nearly 600 victims of forced sterilization in state prisons who are still alive today.
Because of a long history of sterilization of incarcerated women - between 1909 and 1979, an estimated 20,000 forced sterilizations occurred in state-run institutions in California alone - sterilizations are banned in state prisons if federal funds are used.
A 2013 report by the Center for Investigative Reporting found that, from 2006 to 2010, about 150 women in California prisons were sterilized without required state approval.
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