Talking Reproductive Rights and Forced Sterilizations with Director Erika Cohn
The new film ‘Belly of the Beast’ explores the legacy of forced sterilizations in California’s prison system
In 2000, Kelli Dillion was 24 years old when she began to feel abdominal pain. An inmate at the Central California Women’s Facility, the world’s largest women’s prison, Dillion was sent to the prison gynecologist for an exam. The doctor suspected she had cancer and booked her for a biopsy. He also asked whether Dillon wanted to have more children. She said yes. Then, he inquired whether she’d agreed to a hysterectomy. Dillion said yes, but only if they found signs of the disease. She came out of surgery and was told there was no cancer, and that the medical team had removed some cysts.
Over the next nine months, Dillon didn’t menstruate, lost 100 pounds, and experienced panic attacks, night sweats, and other tell-tale symptoms of surgical menopause. What Dillon discovered after obtaining her medical records with the help from her lawyer, Cynthia Chandler, would devastate her: She had been sterilized against her consent. The doctors knew she was cancer-free, and yet they removed her ovaries and part of her fallopian tubes.
