North Carolina budget drops payment to forced sterilization victims

Victims of North Carolina's forced-sterilization program will not receive any compensation under a $20.2 billion state budget deal announced Wednesday. One outspoken victim of the program says she plans to sue.

If lawmakers had approved $10 million to start the compensation plan, the state would have been the first in the country to pay forced-sterilization victims.

The state's program ran from 1929 to 1974 and involved more than 7,600 people. The state House in May approved a plan to pay $50,000 to each victim still alive as of March 1, 2010. Officials have verified 132 victims, of whom 118 are living, but they estimate that up to 2,000 people would be eligible for compensation, which all told would cost $100 million.