‘La Operación’: The Hidden History and Forced Sterilization of Puerto Rican Women

PUBLISHED 7/25/2026 by

A new docuseries episode revisits the decades-long U.S.-backed sterilization campaign that permanently altered the lives of thousands of Puerto Rican women.

A poster protesting the practice of forced sterilization of women of color, created for a rally in San Francisco in the 1970s. (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

In 1937, the U.S. began one of the largest sterilization campaigns in modern history in its colony of Puerto Rico. By the 1970s, one-third of all Puerto Rican women of childbearing age had been sterilized, most without being properly informed that the procedure was permanent. 

The decades-long campaign has haunted Puerto Rican families for generations and remains one of the clearest examples of the United States’ ugly history of reproductive coercion. 

That history is the focus of “Declared Unfit to Reproduce – Eugenics,” the newest episode of BC Voices‘ docuseries Speak UP, Speak OUT, which explores how ever-changing reproductive policies have shaped the lives of women throughout the past half-century. 

Following the 1898 Spanish-American War, in which the U.S. gained control of Puerto Rico, the island’s economy crumbled. American-owned companies came to dominate the island. By 1930, the unemployment rate was 36 percent. Those who were fortunate enough to find a job were forced to work at American-owned factories and sugar plantations for little pay. This left the island with around 90 percent of the population living below the poverty line. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed Puerto Rico’s main economic problems came from overpopulation—so he tasked Blanton Winship, the governor of Puerto Rico, to find a solution.

Fueled by eugenic ideology and corporate interest, Winship devised a plan to sterilize the women of Puerto Rico. Backed by the U.S. government, in 1937, Winship officially made sterilization legal in Puerto Rico. At the time, early forms of contraceptives were not available on the island like they were in the United States. The government took advantage of this fact and started a propaganda campaign that marketed sterilization as a miracle way to avoid pregnancy.

However, the women were led to believe that the procedure could be reversed if they wanted more children. 

Sterilization propaganda became ingrained in Puerto Rican culture. In school textbooks, children were taught that families should consist only of a mother, a father, and two children. Employers began to open up clinics inside the factories to make it easier for their female workers to get sterilized. At some hospitals on the island, women with two or more children were only allowed to give birth at their hospital if the mother agreed to undergo a tubal ligation immediately after giving birth. 

Sterilization became so popular that women simply referred to the procedure as “la operación.” 

While the forced sterilization campaign was happening in Puerto Rico, back in the United States, Gregory Pincus was developing the first birth control pill. Yet, due to strict birth control laws in the U.S., he could not test the effects of the pill on American women. 

Gregory Pincus in London, May 4, 1966. (Keystone-France / Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Desperate to get the pill on the market, Pincus looked for places outside the U.S. That’s when he landed on Puerto Rico. Unlike the U.S., Puerto Rico did not have laws against birth control and already had a government that backed population control methods. 

When the trials began in 1955, Pincus had no problems finding participants for the study. After years of sterilization, the women of Puerto Rico were eager to find a new way to prevent pregnancy that was not permanent. The participants, though, were not properly informed that the pill they were taking was an experimental drug instead of approved medicine. 

As the trials continued, 17 percent of the participants dropped out due to serious side effects like vomiting, breakthrough bleeding and congestive heart failure. Pincus and his team dismissed these complaints as they believed that the participants were exaggerating their side effects and not following the directions on how to take the pill. In the end, three women passed away due to complications from the trials. 

Despite these deaths and reports of adverse effects, Pincus and his team proceeded with the trials. By 1960, the pill was approved and officially released to the world. 

The sterilization of Puerto Rican women ended in the 1970s after activist groups like Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias with the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse and the documentary La Operación exposed the ugly truth of systemic abuse. This led the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to pass more federal sterilization guidelines like informed consent and a strict 30-day waiting period before the operation. 

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However, forced sterilization is still a problem in the U.S. today. 

Currently, in 31 states and Washington, D.C., some form of sterilization is legal. Many states allow for individuals with disabilities to be sterilized against their will. Between 1923 and 2023, over 1,500 people considered “mentally deficient” were forcibly sterilized under Delaware’s eugenics laws. While Mississippi does not have any laws for or against sterilization, for Black women, the forced procedure was so common between the 1920s and 1980s that it is known as a “Mississippi appendectomy.“

In the 21st century, sterilization is most common in prisons and detention centers. In prisons across the U.S., incarcerated women, especially women of color, have been sterilized against their will. From 2006-2010, over 100 incarcerated women were sterilized in California prisons. The doctors at the prisons would often pressure pregnant incarcerated women to get their tubes tied after they gave birth. 

In ICE detention centers, forced sterilizations are being performed on women and girls, according to reporting from The Intercept. At the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, dozens of women were subjected to non-consensual and unnecessary medical procedures like hysterectomies, according to whistleblower Dawn Wooden, who was a nurse at Irwin. After the surgeries, the women were not properly cared for; they reported wounds becoming infected, and many say they were left in serious pain without relief. 

As Puerto Rican women continue to deal with the generational trauma of forced sterilization, it’s time we take another look at our sterilization laws and how harmful they are to women and girls across the country. 

Currently, New Mexico is examining its role in the forced sterilization of Indigenous women. The New Mexico Indian Affairs Department and the Commission on the Status of Women are examining the history and lasting effects of forced and coerced sterilization of minority women. They will report the findings to the governor by late 2027. 

With the threat of eugenics looming larger as the president continues to spew hate speech about immigrants having “bad genes,” now more than ever, other states must acknowledge and learn from their eugenics past so that history does not repeat itself. 

The logo for BC Voices, a nonprofit created by members of the class of 1971 of Barnard College, the women’s undergraduate division of Columbia University, to collect, preserve and share the stories of women coming of age in the tumultuous late 1960s and early 1970s.

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A note from Ms. editors: We want to hear from you for The Majority, a new campaign collecting stories about how reproductive freedom has enabled readers to build the lives they want and need. Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans support reproductive healthcare access. Yet public debate overlooks the lives shaped by abortion access, contraception, IVF, miscarriage care, maternal healthcare or comprehensive sex education—countless women who chose to pursue an education, have children, not have children, protect their health and chart their own future. Add your voice and complete the sentence: “Access to reproductive choices gave me the freedom to….” Together, these stories will help show not only why reproductive freedom remains a majority value, but also what it makes possible. 

Look to these trusted groups if you or a loved one needs to know more about reliable abortion care:

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About

Lillian Kollross is an editorial intern at Ms. based in Boston. Originally from Indiana, Kollross received her bachelor's degree from Emerson College, where she specialized in film, and a master's degree in journalism from Ball State University. She is dedicated to delivering stories that focus on women’s issues and social injustices. View more of Lillian Kollross’ work on her website and on YouTube.