The Finding Aid for the Virgina Espino and Renee Tajima-Pena Collection of Sterilization Records covers the court records of 10 Latina women in Los Angeles circa 1975 – 1979 who sued the Los Angeles County – University of Southern California Medical Center for malpractice on the grounds of racial discrimination: namely their coerced sterilization.
This finding aid collection was donated to the UCLA Research Center for Chicano Studies in 2013 by both Virginia Espino and Renee Tajima-Pena, who were conducting personal research at UCLA at the time.
While the finding aid does not provide explicit information on the how the malpractice physically occurred, one may infer from the sparse descriptions of each court document that E. J. Quilligan, M.D. (an obstetrician), may have been treating these women in preparation for childbirth. Given that an obstetrician is directly involved in the process of a planned or current pregnancy, the lawsuit against Quilligan takes a decidedly malicious turn, as his primary role as caregiver is to provide guidance in the prenatal stage, as opposed to the abortion or nullification of a pregnancy through coerced sterilization.
Whether or not these women were tricked into sterilization or were simply brute-forced remains unclear in the finding aid’s accounts. That additional information may be retrieved by combing over the photocopied court documents themselves, in addition to audio recordings. These documents may be accessed by contacting the Southern Regional Library Facility at UCLA (where they are currently stored) or sending a research inquiry to the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. However, these documents are currently unavailable online and the documents have been tagged as “unavailable for research”.
In closing, it is safe to say that these documents tell the narrative of systemic racism against Hispanic American women present in the USC Medical branch during the 1970’s, and paints a picture of abuse that may have very well expanded to many women beyond the 10 victims who came forward in this litigation. These records also address the reproductive rights of women and implies the emotional and physical damage caused by involuntary sterilization. Furthermore, questions of civil rights and women’s rights are underscored in this case, as the malicious malpractice of Doctor Quilligan clearly sets an example for the unlawful and unethical disregard for such basic human liberties.
It is also worth mentioning that the scope of these documents only cover the course case of the 10 women who stepped forward, and does not include the many other Latina women who were implied to have been harmed by Quilligan’s racial discrimination. The only way, in my mind, that this additional documentation may possibly be retrieved lies in the feasible cross-reference between this database and others within the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center of medical documents in the 1970’s that deal with Latina healthcare at USC.
I thought your blog post did an excellent job explaining the narratives that could be formulated from the contents rather than simply noting the contents of the boxes. I really loved your commentary on the implications the documents have as well as the short-comings of the small scope the contents have. Great post!
This posting indeed captured the most prominent features of the materials. The value of this dataset is it offers a series of undeniable direct evidence to this kind of malpractice, which is sufficient enough for a lawsuit. But we need a larger historical context to thoroughly understand this phenomenon. As the posting mentioned, researchers may need other cross-reference to solve the problem. I especially like the solution provided in the last part of the posting because it sounds promising.
I really appreciated the context you provided for the collection in terms of the state of Latina healthcare at USC in the 1970s. Systemic racism in the medical field is a very serious issue and, as you pointed out, often infringes on the rights of patients. I would be interested in also seeing whether there are records of similar cases for other doctors, or evidence of complicity on the part of other healthcare practitioners across LA and across the country. Another narrative that would be interesting would also be the personal stories of the 10 women whose court cases are documented.
Great post !! Really appreciate the attention paid to the myriad of women most likely implicated in this narrative of coerced sterilization, including the women not personally involved in the legal case itself. Also enjoyed your suggestion of cross-referencing this particular finding aid with other resources and databases.