--- title: Compensate Victims of Government-Run Eugenics Programs description: Thom Tillis: "It is my hope that in addition to assisting living eugenics victims, this law will also increase the public’s awareness." canonical: https://time.com/4534982/thom-tillis-eugenics/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-19T14:29:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:15:35.878Z article:section: Ideas og:title: We Must Compensate Victims of Government-Run Eugenics Programs og:description: 'We must make a good faith effort to address the wrongs' og:url: https://time.com/4534982/thom-tillis-eugenics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8614e5f1bcf53c2a/6988aa6a656a3f6187bcd7e1/thom-tillis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: Sen. Thom Tillis speaks with an aide after a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: We Must Compensate Victims of Government-Run Eugenics Programs twitter:description: 'We must make a good faith effort to address the wrongs' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8614e5f1bcf53c2a/6988aa6a656a3f6187bcd7e1/thom-tillis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sen. Tillis: We Must Compensate Victims of Government-Run Eugenics Programs > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Sen. Thom Tillis](https://time.com/author/sen-thom-tillis/) ## Sen. Thom Tillis Oct 19, 2016 2:29 PM UTC  Sen. Thom Tillis speaks with an aide after a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 2016. Sen. Thom Tillis speaks with an aide after a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 2016.Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Sen. Thom Tillis](https://time.com/author/sen-thom-tillis/) ## Sen. Thom Tillis Oct 19, 2016 2:29 PM UTC At the recent opening ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., former President George W. Bush reflected on the social advancement America has made, [remarking](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/09/24/read-george-w-bushs-speech-at-the-african-american-museum-13-years-after-signing-the-bill-to-build-it/) that, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws, and corrects them.” President Bush could not be more correct. No nation is perfect, but America is great in part because we do acknowledge our sins of the past and work hard to never repeat them. This has allowed America to make enormous progress since its founding, including ending the horrors of slavery and the bigoted injustices of racial segregation. However, there is one particular sin from our past that has flown under the public’s radar for far too long. It is the dark, shameful period from the late 1920s to the early 1970s, during which more than [60,000 Americans](http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/us/north-carolina-sterilization-payments/) in 33 states were forcibly sterilized as part of state-run eugenics programs. States created eugenics boards to sterilize citizens they deemed “unfit” or too “[feebleminded](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/07/469478098/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations)” to reproduce, in many cases targeting specific groups like unmarried women, African Americans and children from poor families. Victims were often [sterilized](http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/unwanted-sterilization-and-eugenics-programs-in-the-united-states/) without their direct consent or knowledge. The consent process itself was often a travesty, with over-zealous eugenics boards dismissing the objections of the victims’ parents and other relatives. There were also countless stories of [coercion](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449330/) and intimidation: single mothers receiving threats they would never see their children again unless they signed the consent forms to sterilize them. Knowing about the existence of state-run eugenics programs, we must make a good faith effort to address the wrongs committed in the past. We will never take back the agony and trauma the victims have lived with all their lives. However, we can still work to provide a modicum of justice by compensating the victims who were subject to such heinous acts of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of their own government. North Carolina has been at the [forefront](http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/president-signs-senate-bill-that-protects-eugenics-victims/article%5F0b8a6ef3-7aea-55ce-baf8-8ed142f5bcab.html) of the effort to shine a light on eugenics programs and make amends for the gross misdeeds of the past. Advocates in the state waged a decades-long fight to compensate victims, led by former state Rep. Larry Womble. They ran into political opposition from the beginning, first [blocked](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law-jan-june12-sterilization%5F06-21/) by a Democratic governor and legislature. When I became House Speaker in 2011, I joined Rep. Womble’s fight to compensate the victims, only to run into resistance again, this time from some of my fellow Republicans. Getting the legislation passed required us to convince our colleagues to cast aside fiscal and political concerns to do what was morally right. In 2013, we worked out a hard-fought compromise that made North Carolina the [first state](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323971204578629943220881914) in the nation to create a compensation fund for the living victims of its state-run eugenics program. Since 2014, more than 200 North Carolina victims have been awarded compensation payments totaling approximately $35,000 each. Last year, Virginia [followed suit](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31654546), becoming the second state to create a eugenics compensation program, and will soon be awarding $25,000 to each surviving victim. Unfortunately, the legislation at the state-level could only do so much. It turns out that because the federal government counted the compensation as “income,” it jeopardized the victims’ eligibility for federal safety net benefits like Medicaid, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, and others. This meant that the victims—many of whom already have only the modest of means—could have had their federal benefits reduced, or eliminated altogether. As a U.S. Senator, I was determined to stop this unintended consequence, and I introduced [_The Treatment of Certain Payments in Eugenics Compensation Act_](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s1698) along with Senator Tom Carper and original co-sponsors Senators Richard Burr, Mark Warner, and Tim Kaine. This bipartisan legislation will protect living eugenics victims receiving compensation payments by excluding those payments from being considered in the determination of federal benefits. In a rare display of bipartisan unity, both the Senate and the House unanimously passed the legislation, and President Obama recently signed the [legislation](https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1698/text) into law. It is my hope that in addition to assisting living eugenics victims, this law will also increase the public’s awareness of the horrors and injustices of state-run sterilization programs. There are still 31 states that have yet to create their own compensation funds for victims, and I encourage the governors and legislatures of these states to follow the lead of North Carolina and Virginia before it is too late for the victims, many of whom are now in their 80s and 90s. We also cannot forget the many victims of local and county-run eugenics programs, and it is time for county governments in North Carolina and across the nation to do the right thing and create funds for the living survivors. Compensating the victims of government-run eugenics programs will help confirm President Bush’s assertion that America is a great nation willing to face the flaws from its past and present, matched with a willingness to correct them. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4534982/thom-tillis-eugenics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4534982/thom-tillis-eugenics/"},"headline":"Sen. 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