The Vermont Senate passed a resolution apologizing to Vermonters past and present “who were harmed as a result of state-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices.”
Senators unanimously passed Joint Resolution 2 on Wednesday, joining the state’s House of Representatives, which adopted it on April 1, in an effort to make amends for various measures and policies in the state’s history seeking to control reproduction among certain racial and disability groups.
The resolution listed off numerous people and measures that contributed to Vermont’s eugenics policies and practices, which it said targeted those of French Canadian, and French-Indian ancestry, as well as other indigenous peoples and the disabled. It said such measures were “targeted for elimination those it deemed currently or potentially delinquent, defective, and dependent persons through sterilizations, primarily of women, to prevent individuals from having children.”
The resolution pointed specifically to legislation passed by both General Assembly chambers in 1912 but vetoed by the governor that was meant to “authorize and provide for the sterilization of imbeciles, feeble-minded, and insane persons, rapists, confirmed criminals and other defectives.”
It also mentioned a measure that the Legislature passed “for the purpose of eliminating from the future Vermont genetic pool persons deemed mentally unfit to procreate.”
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“The General Assembly sincerely apologizes and expresses sorrow and regret to all individual Vermonters and their families and descendants who were harmed as a result of State-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices,” the resolution said, adding, “The General Assembly continues to work to eradicate the lasting legacy of its prior actions by listening to and working with the affected individuals and communities.”
