During the 20th Century, the U.S government sterilized thousands of Latina and Native American women against their will.

These women had no choice and no voice.

Who gave the United States government permission to invade women's bodies?

Isn't a woman wonderfully and beautifully created? Isn't motherhood a beautiful experience regardless of race and class?

Yet sterilization abuse is prevalent throughout American history.

Soon after the United States had governance over Puerto Rico, officials claimed that the island was overpopulated.

If the population continued to increase, they argued, the island would experience substantial social and economic turmoil.

Does the government actually think that invading a women's body will decrease population rates and increase economic stability?

In 1937, Law 116 exaggerated the need for a population control program, utilizing sterilization to maintain the birth rate as well as economic growth. This "theory" of sterilizing women to create a stable economic system proved false; the island continued to experience economic turmoil and still does to this day.

The United States government outright denied women access to reproductive health services. Puerto Ricans lacked the proper information on alternatives aside from sterilization. The government tricked these women, cutting some without their consent or burning those who intended for their tubes to be tied.

Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, M.D., summarized the situation in Puerto Rico: "Women make choices based on alternatives, and there haven't been many alternatives in Puerto Rico."

The government's most mischievous form of issuing sterilization was a door-to-door visit by health workers. Eventually in Puerto Rico, sterilization became known as "la operacion," giving it an infamous sound.

In 1968, more than one-third of women didn't comprehend that sterilization through tubal ligation and tube tying was not just a form of contraception but an irreversible procedure.

In 1984, director Ana Maria Garcia produced a film call