Reduced health insurance payments for hospital births had a bigger impact on sterilization rates than correcting an injustice

Public outrage over the forced sterilization of poor, Black women had less impact on female sterilization rates in the U.S. than a policy changing how post-birth care is delivered. DisobeyArt/iStock via Getty Images Plus

For decades, female sterilization has been one of the most common forms of birth control in the U.S.: 11.5% of U.S. women, ages 15-49, use female sterilization as their primary contraceptive method – nearly identical to the pill.

But the history of sterilization is also deeply entangled with coercion in the form of racial targeting, invalid consent and state control.