DARK HISTORY: WV LAST STATE TO ALLOW INVOLUNTARY STERILIZATION - Officials Say Practice Not Used Since 1950s, Hundreds Of Mental Patients Received Lobotomies

(12/28/2025)

By Bob Weaver West Virginia is the only state that still has an involuntary sterilization law on its books. State officials are looking into updating or repealing a state law that allows for the involuntary sterilization of "mentally incompetent" people. Officials said sterilization was used regularly in the 1920s and '30s, but that it hadn't been used since the 1950s. Most of the sterilization was done in southern states. Hundreds of patients in West Virginia's mental hospitals underwent involuntary lobotomies during the 1950s at Spencer State Hospital. Mark Bold of the Christian Law Institute in Lynchburg, Virginia is advocating striking the law and compensating those were sterilized in the past. Related Hur Herald Articles: SUNNY CAL JOURNAL - Uncle Harrison's Lobotomy 'ICE-PICK' LOBOTOMIES GIVEN AT SPENCER STATE HOSPITAL - "It Was A Real Grisly Thing," Said Doctor 230 WEST VIRGINIANS STERILIZED UNDER GOVERNMENT PROGRAM - Thousand More Had 'Ice-Pick' Lobotomies SUNNY CAL JOURNAL - Spencer Asylum Has Tortured History

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