Virginia governor apologizes for forced sterilization under eugenics law
By Bill Baskervill, Associated Press Writer

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.

Gov. Mark R. Warner apologized Thursday for Virginia's forced sterilization of thousands of people from 1924 to 1979, calling it "a shameful effort" that must never be repeated.

Virginia conducted about 7,450 sterilizations under the banner of eugenics, or selective human breeding and social engineering.

On Thursday, it became the first of the 30 states that conducted such sterilizations to apologize. There were more than 60,000 eugenics victims nationwide.

Warner's apology coincides with the 75th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Buck v. Bell decision upholding Virginia's eugenics law, which became a model for other states.

"Today, I offer the commonwealth's sincere apology for Virginia's participation in eugenics," the Democratic governor said in the statement. "The eugenics movement was a shameful effort in which state government never should have been involved."

Del. Mitchell Van Yahres read the statement aloud at the unveiling of a highway marker in Charlottesville honoring the memory of Carrie Buck, who was an 18-year-old unwed mother when she became the first person forcibly sterilized under Virginia's 1924 law.

The law targeted almost any human shortcoming that was believed to be hereditary, including mental illness, mental retardation, epilepsy, alcoholism and criminal behavior.

Rose Brooks, 61, who was sterilized under the program and helped unveil the highway marker, called Warner's apology "pretty good."

She said she was taken to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded for sterilization because she had twin boys out of wedlock at age 17. The twins were taken from her and adopted, and she did not hear from them until 1991 when the twins, then 36, contacted her by phone.

Last year, the General Assembly passed a resolution expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in eugenics, but it stopped short of a formal apology. Some legislators expressed concern that an apology could make the state vulnerable to lawsuits.

But Warner spokeswoman Ellen Qualls said Thursday that the governor, after consulting with Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, "felt comfortable that there would be no legal repercussions from issuing an apology."

On Wednesday, two state legislators presented a commendation from the General Assembly to eugenics victim Raymond W. Hudlow for his decorated service as a combat soldier in World War II. Hudlow had been sterilized against his will at age 16 because he was a runaway.

© The Associated Press

Printer-friendly version