Nancy Hernandez
Nancy Hernandez (born c. 1945) is an American who was a 21-year-old resident and mother of two in Santa Barbara, California, in 1966, when she was
ordered to be sterilized or be imprisoned. Nancy pleaded guilty that year for being with her boyfriend, Joseph Sanchez, while he used illegal narcotics. The
Santa Barbara County judge that presided over the trial,
Santa Barbara Municipal Court Judge Frank P. Kearney, requested that if she wanted to receive probation then she must submit to sterilization. The judge's decision channeled eugenic principles to assert that if Hernandez acts immorally then she should not be allowed to have more children. Nancy was one of many
Latina women who were attempted to be forcibly sterilized. Many women of color across the United States who were asked to submit to sterilization, coerced into sterilization, or did not consent to sterilization. Hernandez did not submit to forced sterilization and instead was sentenced to three months in jail. Her court-ordered attorney submitted a writ of habeas corpus to the superior court, which was granted by the judge. Hernandez was released to her probation officer and the sterilization provision of her probation order was removed. Her case was the first to receive national attention for sentences that called for sterilization of minority women.
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