Needless to say, methods of female sterilization were developed later and through a desire to maintain a patriarchal structure, women soon became the main targets of involuntary sterilization. .
Even in the midst of the Birth Control Movement, as white, middle-class feminists demanded the right to reproduce at their own will, eugenics ideology persevered. Margaret Sanger, the strong figurehead of this early 20th century feminist movement, once stated, that "the chief issue of birth control" was "more from the fit, less from the unfit" (Davis 213-4). Sanger's movement became painstakingly connected to the eugenics movement and they often supported each other. As white women from the Suffrage movement strongly promoted the white woman's vote, in order to denounce an African American man's right to vote, the Birth Control movement similarly promoted the sterilization of the "unfit" as a necessary means of population control and maintaining the white race as superior and greater in number. Sanger public ally approved the forced sterilization of "morons, mental defectives, epileptics, illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes, and dope fiends" (Davis 214). As a result of this sentiment towards the "unfit," many state laws were passed in the 1930s that allowed physicians, hospitals, and social workers to determine who was "unfit" and then report them to the Eugenics Board, who would authorize the sterilization of these people, mostly women. As a result of these laws passed by 27 states, 60,000 Native Americans, African Americans, the mentally and physically disabled, and the poor were involuntarily sterilized (Scully 3). Under the supposed mission to give women their inherent reproductive rights, the Birth Control Movement ironically forcefully sterilized women of color and their choice to reproduce was forever stripped from them. .
Founded in 1997, Barbara Harris" non-profit organization, Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity (CRACK), began a modern day eugenics campaign against the poor and low-income women of color.
