‘So Humanly Low’: California Sterilizes Black Woman Without Her Consent, Then Tried to Block Her from Receiving Compensation Until a Judge Stepped In

A Black woman who was sterilized without her consent during a medical procedure while incarcerated in a California state prison has been granted a $35,000 reparations payment after years of appealing her case. The decision by the California Victim Compensation Board to award the payment to Geynna Buffington could mean that hundreds of other people sterilized by the state whose applications for reparations have been rejected could also be eligible to receive such payments. Geynna Buffington fought and won to receive reparations after forced sterilization (Credit: ABC 7 Video Screengrab) Buffington, now 58, was released from prison at age 40, and tried to have a baby for over a year, unaware that a procedure she had at the Central California Women’s Prison in Chowchilla a decade earlier would make that unlikely, reported CalMatters. In 1998, Buffington underwent a cryogenic ablation in order to treat what a prison doctor told her was an abnormal pap smear indicating precancerous growth. The procedure freezes and destroys endometrial cells in the uterine lining and should not be done for people who have any desire for future childbearing, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Buffington was not informed of how the procedure...