In the United States, in recent decades, more and more women have used a long-term method of birth control, such as intrauterine devices or implants (Sterilisation, the first contraceptive in the United States?).
However, this method of contraception has also served the birth control policy, targeting specific categories of individuals.
As in California, between 1909 and 1979, when nearly 20,000 people were sterilised against their will, in the 1990s, many states proposed laws to encourage or require welfare recipients to use this new contraceptive. At the same time, some judges offered reduced sentences to defendants who agreed to sterilisation or birth control.
Using these different means, states thus sought to limit the “spread” of a targeted category of people, such as the poor or people of foreign origin, deeming that it was for “the good of society”.
For further reading:
The Neuwirth Law judged by History
The New York Times, Christine Dehlendorf and Kelsey Holt (02/01/18) – The Dangerous Rise of the IUD as Poverty Cure