Asignificant number of women, especially Black women, who were on welfare during the 1970s were involuntary sterilized. The sterilization of African American women in the United States had been going on for decades. The practice was tied to eugenic proponents who supported the sterilization of Black women because of their race and economic class. Lower-class women did not have bodily autonomy; instead, state administrators, doctors and other medical professionals, and legal practitioners exerted control over poor women’s health choices and reproductive systems. Many women were unable to choose their own form of birth control; some consented to sterilization due to the threats of loss of welfare assistance. In Alabama, the Relf sisters were both subjected to unwanted sterilization. Under the age of 18, the Relf sisters believed that their mother had volunteered them for birth control shots, but instead the two women were sterilized. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the sisters exposed how the federal government had been funding the involuntary sterilization of women for decades. The lawsuit led to the requirement that doctors obtain informed consent before performing sterilization procedures. Relf v. Weinberger (1974) ushered in the concept of reproductive freedom, eventually paving the way for women to choose for themselves whether and when to reproduce. The opinion was written by District Judge Gerhard Gesell for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.