November 14, 1939. The Human Betterment Foundation wrote as article titled “Sterilization Today” which was featured in The Gateway. The article is a discussion of the first thousand of 13,000 sterilizations that were done in the state of California. The type of sterilization for men and women is detailed, noting its validity as a practice, not experiment. Other countries that had enacted sterilization laws to date were listed; Alberta and British Columbia were identified in this list. The article continues to detail statistics of the feebleminded in the United States and that although it was not a universal remedy, experts believe it was necessary and approved the practice. A decrease in sexual offenses was also reported, not because the sterilization altered an individual’s sexual life, but because experts believed sterilization improved an individual’s overall health and care.

This article can be found online in the Peel Collection here.

-Laura Shaw

• The Human Betterment Foundation. (1939, November 14). Sterilization Today. The Gateway, pp. 2–3.