How do we survive to thrive?: Forced Sterilization, Eugenics, Disability
On July 24, 2022, AWN hosted a conversation with Cara Page and Ma’ayan Anafi on the topic of forced sterilization, eugenics, and disability.
Laws in many states say that sometimes a doctor can sterilize a disabled person even when that person does not want it. These laws let judges, along with other people like family members or guardians, make the decision for the disabled person. Our panel will discuss what we can do about these ableist laws and the practice of eugenics.
Moderator: Lydia X. Z. Brown, AWN Director of Policy, Advocacy, and External Affairs
Corrected transcript coming soon.
Presenters
Cara Page
Cara Page is a Black Queer Feminist cultural/memory worker, curator, and organizer. For the past 30+ years, she has organized with Black, Indigenous and People of Color, Queer/Trans/Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Intersex/Gender Non-Conforming liberation movements in the US & Global South at the intersections of racial, gender & economic justice, reproductive justice, healing justice and transformative justice. She is leading a new project, Changing Frequencies, is a Black Queer Feminist led, abolitionist organizing project that designs cultural memory work to disrupt the harms & experimentation of the Medical Industrial Complex* (MIC). We amplify and honor communal stories towards organizing healing and transformative futures. Cara is one of the architects of the healing justice political strategy, envisioned by many in the US South and deeply rooted in Black Feminist traditions and Southern Black Radical Traditions of the Global South. She is co-founder and current leadership team member of the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective. She is also the former ED of The Audre Lorde Project, and former National Coordinator of the Committee on Women, Population & the Environment.
Ma'ayan Anafi
Ma’ayan Anafi (they/them) is the Senior Counsel for Health Equity and Justice at the National Women’s Law Center. Ma’ayan authored the report “Forced Sterilization of Disabled People in the United States,” which reveals that 31 states and D.C. currently have laws allowing the forced sterilization of disabled people. Ma’ayan lives with their cats, Bunny and Squeak.