Ann Cooper Hewitt Sterilized

In 1935 in San Francisco, heiress Ann Cooper Hewitt entered the hospital for what she was told was a routine appendectomy. Her mother, Maryon Cooper Hewitt, persuaded the doctors to sterilize Ann at the same time, telling them it was necessary. The surgery meant Ann could never have children, and that mattered because her late father's will said that if she had no heirs, her share of the estate would go back to her mother. When Ann found out, she took the case to court, and the story became a public scandal.

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