To protect the "boys" who were recruited in WW1, "the 65th United States Congress passed the Chamberlain–Kahn Act on July 9th, 1918. The act implemented a public health program that came to be known as the American Plan. It authorized the military, police, and public health officers to arrest any woman “reasonably suspected” of prostitution and subject her to an invasive screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). If she tested positive, she could be forcibly "quarantined" in jails, hospitals, and even former brothels converted to keep such fallen women in. Some who tested negative were incarcerated anyways, as their presumed promiscuity was deemed a public health threat.
"While the law was itself gender-neutral, in its application, the Chamberlain-Kahn Act was used almost exclusively to target women. As just one example, in 1918, of the 1,121 people in Michigan hospitalized under suspicion of STIs, 95.6% were women. Lower-class, non-white, and otherwise marginalized women were subjected to the worst abuse. Black women were often segregated from white women, jailed in subpar facilities, and subjected to racist violence. Some were sterilized against their will or without their knowledge. Government officials warned that women of color were less moral and intent on infecting soldiers. They considered Black people in particular a “syphilis soaked race.”
"The phrasing “reasonably suspected” gave practical carte blanche to its enforcers to arrest anyone they pleased. Nearly anything could make you a suspect, from being seen with a soldier to eating alone in a restaurant to simply existing in public."...
Office for Science and Society
McGill University
801 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3A 0B8
= new reply since forum marked as read