During the 20th century, the American government had a widespread program in which they locked people up, without trial, for having Sexually Transmitted Infections – if they were women.
The American Plan detained tens of thousands of American women and forcibly examined them for STIs.
If a woman tested positive, U.S. officials sent them to penal institutions without due process.
This forced internment could last from a few days to many months.
In these institutions, women were often infected with mercury or arsenic-based drugs.
If women failed to show “proper” ladylike deference, they could be beaten, thrown into solitary confinement, or even sterilized.
These women were detained for no justifiable reason, including refusal to have sex with police or health officers.
Enforcement of the American Plan lasted over fifty years, through the 1970s, but today, few people have heard of it.
Even fewer are aware that American Plan laws enabling officials to examine people “reasonably suspected” of having STIs, are still on the books in some form in every U.S. state today.
More at American’s Forgotten Mass Imprisonment of Women Believed to Be Sexually Immoral.