Don't kid yourself; there are still a lot of hidden sterilizations occurring in Michigan...
There were at least 3,786 officially documented cases of sterilizations in Michigan. Of the 3786 cases, 74% of sterilizations were carried out on females and 26% on males. 440 sterilizations cases were carried out on people considered mentally ill, while 2927 were carried out on persons deemed mentally deficient. The remaining 419 were of neither--those considered “sexual deviants, epileptics or moral degenerates” (Paul, p. 375). According to a study by the Human Betterment Foundation stated that 76% of the total sterilizations were performed on the feeble-minded, and 73% of all sterilizations were on women. Of the insane, 82% were women, and 72% of the feebleminded were female. In “the HBF category of others,” most of the women suffered from epilepsy, while “many of the men were presumably sex offenders” (Hodges, “Dealing with Degeneracy,” p. 187).
Period When Sterilizations Occurred
Sterilizations in Michigan occurred from 1914 through 1963 (Paul, p. 382). The vast majority of them occurred after the Michigan passed its last sterilization law in 1929.