The Center for Investigative Reporting has revealed nearly 150 female prisoners in California were surgically sterilized without required state approvals from 2006 to 2010. There may be roughly 100 additional cases dating back to the late 1990s. Prisoners reported being coerced into the sterilizations by medical staff. One woman said a prison doctor “made me feel like a bad mother if I didn’t do it.” While such sterilizations require approval from top state medical officials, no requests have come before the committee responsible. The revelation has recalled an era decades ago when prisoners, the mentally ill and the poor were systematically sterilized in California and other states.