The Mind of a Deviant Woman

Carrie Buck, a young woman living in early-twentieth-century Virginia, is raped and becomes pregnant by a family member—and her trauma is only beginning. She is deemed a “deviant” for having a child out of wedlock and, for that reason, is a candidate for sterilization.

Louisa Van Patten, a New York socialite, is an advocate of the eugenics movement, which promotes this punishment.

When Carrie and Louisa meet, along with journalist Ben Newman, during a national debate about the merits of for...