America's Forgotten Mass Imprisonment of Women Believed to Be Sexually Immoral

[BluebonicPlague]

Horrific slice of history.

Under the 'American Plan,' women could be detained for sitting in a restaurant alone, changing jobs—or, often, for no reason at all.

And some of the enabling legislation is still on state statute books. Scott W Stern writes on History.com:
For much of the 20th century in America, a little-known but widespread government program locked people up without trials simply for having sexually transmitted infections—and then forced them to undergo dangerous, poisonous “treatments.”

If they were women, that is.

The American Plan began in 1918: federal officials began pushing every state in the nation to pass a “model law,” which enabled officials to forcibly examine any person “reasonably suspected” of having an STI. Under this statute, those who tested positive for an STI could be held in detention for as long as it took to render him or her noninfectious. (On paper, the law was gender-neutral; in practice, it almost exclusively focused on regulating women and their bodies.)

And of course, 'reasonably suspected' meant in practice 'for any reason or no reason at all'.
Long article at the link. The final paragraph is chilling:
Enforcement of the American Plan ended by the 1970s, amid the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, the women’s lib movement and the sex-workers-rights movement. It had lasted in many places for half a century; but today, half a century later, few people have ever heard of it. Even fewer are aware that the American Plan laws—the ones passed in the late 1910s, enabling officials to examine people merely “reasonably suspected” of having STIs—are still on the books, in some form, in every state in the nation. Some of these laws have been altered or amended, and some have been absorbed into broader public-health statutes, but each state still has the power to examine “reasonably suspected” people and isolate the infected ones, if health officials deem such isolation necessary.

America's Forgotten Mass Imprisonment of Women Believed to Be Sexually Immoral

Shocking stuff . Not so long ago, either.

Bloody hell

people might also want to look up Britain's record of placing young girls in mental health hospitals for this which still happened just within living memory as I met a 90 year old lady who's records originally recorded that fact

Yes, this absolutely happened in other countries as well. The sexual double standard around the spread of venereal diseases was shocking. The relevant Acts in Britain were the Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s, but these were repealed after substantial campaigning. So I wonder if your example Bespin would be under the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, because that Act was used for all sorts of social factors rather than mental health. So for example, having an illegitimate child or being thought to spread VD or generally displaying inappropriate sexual behaviour came under that and women came under the Act much more than men. And yes, institutionalised. This went on for decades, although it has since been replaced by the Mental Health Act 1959 (I think that is the correct year).

The state has a long history of institutional violence against women whether that is committing women to institutions as above; removing their children rather than providing support, particularly if they are disabled or disadvantaged in some way; removing their children if they are illegitimate or on marital breakdown and divorce; criminalising abortion; failing to protect victims of domestic abuse and their children in the family courts; cutting social supports to women and children most likely to be in poverty; and most recently, housing male-bodied people with female prisoners. I am sure that list can be added to.

It's not simply the power of the state but the way its enforcers feel entitled to act. In Sacramento, the eager police arrested 22 women in one day. They were all subjected to vaginal examination:
Margaret Hennessey and her sister were not the only women arrested that day in 1919; Officer Ryan and the rest of the morals squad had had a busy morning. According to city police records, at about 9:25 a.m., they had arrested a Mrs. M. Sodfreid on “reasonable suspicion” of having an STI. Forty minutes later, they had arrested another woman, Lena Roserene, on the same charge. Then followed identical arrests of women recorded only as Mrs. J.S. Smith, Mrs. Butterworth and Mrs. R. Nichols. Hennessey and Bradich were Ryan’s fifth and sixth STI arrests of the morning. It was a sweep. In all, the morals squad arrested 22 women on February 25, all for the crime of suspicion of STIs. But because Margaret Hennessey alone of these women gave a statement to the newspapers, it is her story that exemplifies the rest.

The STI examinations showed that neither Hennessey nor Bradich had an STI, and officers released them at about 8:00 pm, with orders to appear for court the next morning. At 9:30 a.m., Hennessey stormed into court—ready, she declared to the Sacramento Bee, to “defend myself,” but “I would have no chance.” She was informed the charges had been dismissed. Nonetheless, the arrest left a mark. "I dare not venture on the streets,” she told the Bee later that day, “for fear I will be arrested again.”

In fact, of the 22 women arrested for suspicion of STIs, 16 were released later that day, including Hennessey and Bradich. Six were held overnight, not allowed to speak with or contact anyone. In the end, only one of the 22 women tested positive for STIs. “In other words,” the Bee reported, “out of twenty-two suspects subjected to an examination, the police were justified in arresting but one woman.”

To repeat Mrs Hennessey: I dare not venture on the streets,” she told the Bee later that day, “for fear I will be arrested again.

What you describe is awful but don't fall in to the trap of believing that such travesties only occurred in the USA. The UK, Ireland and Canada committed women to institutions because they were considered to be of a low moral standard.

Even today laws around prostitution frequently criminalise women but very seldom men.

I was shocked when I heard that the last Magdalene laundry on Ireland closed in 1996...two years after I had my first child.

No, ludog, it's everywhere. Men in power will try to control women. And the people to whom the state delegates power will use it unwisely or maliciously against women or anyone they perceive to be in need of control.
Police, Home Office, detention centres, DWP, ATOS etc - you name it.

Sorry, my comment was meant to be to Windygate*

Apart from all the aspects of controlling and intimidating women, punishing them for being female basically, it sounds like for at least some of the men involved it was also a golden opportunity to sexually assault women at will and with impunity.

Barbaric.