Attorneys: Sterilizations were Part of Plea Deal Talks
        
            By Sheila Burke, 
                Associated Press
             | 03. 28. 2015
        
                    
                                    
                    
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                            
                              
    
  
  
    
  
          
  
      
    
             
  Untitled Document 
  
Nashville prosecutors have made sterilization   of women part of plea negotiations at least four times in the past five   years, and the district attorney has banned his staff from using the   invasive surgery as a bargaining chip after the latest case.
 
  In the most recent case, first reported by The Tennessean, a woman   with a 20-year history of mental illness had been charged with neglect   after her 5-day-old baby mysteriously died. Her defense attorney says   the prosecutor assigned to the case wouldn't go forward with a plea deal   to keep the woman out of prison unless she had the surgery.
 
  Defense attorneys say there have been at least three similar cases in   the past five years, suggesting the practice may not be as rare as   people think and may happen more often outside the public view and   without the blessing of a court .
 
  Sterilization coerced by the legal system evokes a dark time in   America, when minorities, the poor and those deemed mentally unfit or   "deficient" were forced to undergo medical procedures that prevented   them from having...
 
 
  
 
    
    
  
   
                        
                                                                                
                 
                                                    
                            
                                  
    
  
  
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