A decades-old pain and injustice resurfaced. This time, in the halls of government, after the lawmakers have approved a measure directing the state Indian Affairs Department and the Commission on the Status of Women to look into forced and coerced sterilization of Native American women by the Indian Health Service (IHS) in the 1970s. The practice, according to survivors and advocates, still casts a long shadow on them.
The review will investigate the history, scope, and lasting impact of the procedures. A report to the governor is due by 2027.
Roybal Caballero, a Democrat from Albuquerque, is a member of the Piro-Manso-Tiwa tribe. She has a story of being nearly sterilized without consent. Caballero broke her silence during an interim committee hearing last year after she heard other women share similar experiences.
“It gave me courage to speak up on their behalf,” said Caballero. She sponsored House Memorial 32, calling for a review of the impacts of forced sterilization of Indigenous women and women of color.
The Senate has also passed a mirror effort, Senate Memorial 14. Memorials don’t have the force of law. But their effects could lead to action.
State Senator Linda Lopez, one of the sponsors of the measure, in an AP report, said, New Mexico needs to understand the atrocities that took place within the borders of our state.
A story that refuses to fade
Survivors and advocates are sharing their testimonies in response to renewed calls for accountability. One of them is Jean Whitehorse, a citizen of the Navajo Nation.
Whitehorse was brought to the IHS hospital in Gallup, New Mexico, for a ruptured appendix in 1972. She was 22 and had just given birth. While in severe pain, she said a nurse handed her consent forms moments before surgery.
The nurse, she claimed, held the pen in her hand and let her sign on a line.
Years later, she had difficulty conceiving. She discovered that a tubal ligation had been performed on her during that hospitalization.
“Each time I tell my story, it relieves the shame, the guilt,” Whitehorse said in recent public testimony. “Now I think, why should I be ashamed? It’s the government that should be ashamed of what they did to us.”
Her story amplifies calls for a formal apology and deeper investigation.
What we know — and what we don’t
A 1976 audit by the U.S. Government Accountability Office revealed that between 1973 and 1976, the IHS sterilized some 3,406 women across four of its 12 service areas, including Albuquerque.
Investigators found that some patients were under 21. And that many of the consent forms they signed did not meet the federal informed consent requirements.
The audit, however, did not include interviews of the women who underwent the procedures. Advocates argue the true number of victims — and its impact many years after — remains unknown.
A broader reckoning
New Mexico is not the first state to have had to confront histories of reproductive injustice.
In 2023, Vermont created a truth and reconciliation commission to review forced sterilizations of indigenous groups. The state of California in 2024 began paying compensation to individuals sterilized without prior consent in state institutions.
Sterilization trauma passed down
Retired IHS physician Dr. Donald Clark said the legacy of legalization has influenced the reproductive health decisions today.
He told lawmakers that he has treated young women seeking contraception who had fears of irreversible sterilization because of stories from their mothers and grandmothers.
“It’s still an issue that is affecting women’s choice of birth control today,” Clark said.
Rachael Lorenzo of Indigenous Women Rising said the investigation must avoid retraumatizing families. It must center on survivors.