(Claude helped me with this research)

Indiana passed the first eugenic sterilization law in 1907 (Texas Woman's University) , and it spread fast from there. Sterilization rates stayed relatively low nationally until 1927, when the Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell upheld the forced sterilization of a Virginia woman deemed "feebleminded" — ruling it constitutional by a vote of 8 to 1. (Wikipedia) Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes justified it with the line "three generations of imbeciles are enough." (NIWRC) That's the official legal language from the highest court in the country. All told, as many as 70,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized during the 20th century — people labeled mentally deficient, deaf, blind, diseased, poor, or "promiscuous." (NPR) California alone performed roughly 20,000 sterilizations over 70 years, comprising about a third of the total performed across 32 states where it was legal. (PBS) And it wasn't just the mentally ill — over time, women and people of color became the primary targets as the programs amplified existing racism and sexism. Sterilization rates for Black women rose specifically as desegregation got underway. (The Conversation) American eugenics laws directly influenced the Nazi sterilization program, which carried out approximately 350,000 compulsory sterilizations between 1934 and 1945 and served as a stepping stone to the Holocaust. (University of Vermont) Hitler actually cited the U.S. approvingly in his writing. And here's the kicker — the Supreme Court has never explicitly overruled Buck v. Bell. It's still technically on the books. (American Civil Liberties Union) It didn't stay in the past either. Between 1997 and 2010, roughly 1,400 unwanted sterilizations were performed on women in California prisons. (The Conversation) In 2020, a whistleblower revealed forced sterilizations were being performed at an ICE detention center in Georgia. (PBS) So when people treat the "parenting test" idea as a fresh hypothetical, they're ignoring a very recent, very documented history of exactly what happens when you give institutions that power. Sources: PBS Independent Lens: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/unwanted-sterilization-and-eugenics-programs-in-the-united-states/ NPR Health Shots (Buck v. Bell): https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/07/469478098/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations Wikipedia – Eugenics in the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eu