More than twenty thousand people were sterilized in the state of California from 1909 to 1964, the highest number of forced sterilizations in the United States and one-third of all sterilizations nationwide. In March 2003, then governor Gray Davis issued a formal apology, saying in part, “To the victims and their families of this past injustice, the people of California are deeply sorry for the suffering you endured over the years.”
