RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia lawmakers have agreed to compensate victims who were involuntarily sterilized by state officials decades ago under a widely accepted program.
The Virginia General Assembly budgeted $400,000 to compensate victims at the rate of $25,000 each.
More than 7,000 Virginians were sterilized between 1924 and 1979 under the Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act. There are only 11 known surviving victims.
Eugenics is the now-discredited movement that sought to improve the genetic composition of humankind by preventing those considered "defective" from reproducing.
Virginia is the second state to approve compensation for victims. North Carolina approved $50,000 in compensation in 2013.
The Virginia law became a model for similar legislation passed around the country and the world, including Nazi Germany.
