The Blanket She Carried: The Story of a Courageous Young Woman Who Carries the Blanket of the Child She Could Never Have

By Linda Sparkman

The story of Linda Sparkman’s life and the unfortunate circumstances that she has endured helped to pass a state law that now protects other people and their rights from being permanently sterilized without their knowledge or permission.

Roger, my lawyer, said, “Linda, I am sorry for you for what your mother and this doctor did to you.” I could see the tears welling up in his eyes. I asked him what I should do now. My lawyer said, “Linda, I don’t know if you know this or not, but there is a law on the books because of your life story. It took your experience to pass this law that says no one can be sterilized unless they are in a mental institution. I know it was all wrong and that they should have to pay for what they have done to you.” He then told me that he had talked to Dr. Kline and the doctor wasn’t very nice to him, questioning him like he did. Roger threatened the doctor by telling him that he had better tell the truth about all of this or that he would have a big lawsuit on his hands. Roger said it took over an hour to convince him, but that the doctor finally told him the truth about what the surgery had done to my body. I could never have children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781663200839

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Copyright © 2020 Linda Sparkman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-0082-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0083-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 05/13/2020

Contents

Foreword

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Final Words

Supreme Court of the United States

1977

Question Presented

(1) A judicial proceeding pending or contemplated;

(2) The filing of papers in the judges court before or after the approval;

(3) The appointment of a guardian ad litem to protect the interests of the minor child;

(4) Notice to the minor child or a guardian ad litem on her behalf;

(5) A hearing to determine the adequacy of the petition for sterilization;

(6) The preservation of the right of appeal to correct any due process error or to prevent the operation of permanent sterilization from being performed.

Statement of the Case

On July 9, 1971, Ila Mason sought court approval to have her fifteen year-old daughter, Linda Sparkman, permanently sterilized. Thomas McHenry, an attorney, had prepared a Petition to Have Tubal Ligation Performed on Minor and Indemnity Agreement, which contained an affidavit by Ila Mason stating that Linda was somewhat retarded even though she attended public schools and had been passed along with other children in her age level. The mother also asserted that Linda had left home on several occasions and had stayed overnight with older youth or young men. Claiming that she could not maintain and control a continuous observation of the activities of said daughter each and every day, the mother requested permanent sterilization in order to prevent unfortunate circumstances. (App. A25.)

The petition was presented to and signed by Judge William Irving of the Circuit Court of Ross County. Both the presentation and approval took place on July 9, 1971, the same day that it was signed by Ila Mason. Judge Irving’s approval of the petition was done in an ex parte manner in an undisclosed location; no claim has ever been made, however, that the signing took place in the courthouse, the courtroom or the judge’s chambers. There was no appointment of a guardian ad litem to represent Linda’s interests. The petition was not filed with the Ross Circuit Court. No notice was given to Linda or anyone on her behalf of the petition, which was approved without any hearing. No court record of the secret approval was made, and there was no opportunity, therefore, for Linda or anyone on her behalf to appeal the decision to have her permanently sterilized before the act took place, seven days later on July 16, 1971.

On July 16, 1971, a tubal ligation was performed by Dr. Rubin Morrow, M.D., at the Ross County Memorial Hospital, resulting in the permanent sterilization of Linda. She had been told that the purpose of her hospitalization was to have her appendix removed and she was unaware of the fact that a tubal ligation was performed on her. When on August 8th, 1973, Linda married Lawrence Hofferman, she was still unaware of the fact that she had been permanently sterilized. Linda could not become pregnant and so she questioned her mother as to what had happened to her during her surgery. Linda was then told by her mother that her tubes had been tied, but that they would come untied on their own accord. Linda told her husband Lawrence that her tubes might have been tied at the time her appendix was removed. Around February, 1974, they went to see Dr. Morrow, who falsely told them that Linda had not been sterilized. It was not until May, 1975, that Linda and Lawrence were, for the first time, informed that a tubal ligation had been performed on Linda on July 16th, 1971, permanently sterilizing her.

Linda and Lawrence Hofferman brought an action seeking damages under Title 42 U.S.C. - 1983 and 1985(3), contending that the actions of the defendants in sterilizing Linda or causing her to be sterilized violated her Constitutional Rights. Linda attached pendent state claims for assault and battery and medical malpractice. Lawrence Hofferman asserted a pendent claim for loss of potential fatherhood.

The United States District Court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the federal claims, holding that the actions of Judge Irving presented the only state action necessary to provide federal court jurisdiction; and that since the actions of Judge Irving were clothed with absolute judicial immunity, neither he nor his alleged co-conspirators were liable. Plaintiff’s remaining claims were dismissed as they were pendent to the federal causes of action.

An appeal was taken on March 23, 1977, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, with Judge Richard Kenny speaking for a unanimous Court, reversed the decision of the District Court and ordered the case remanded for further consistent proceedings.

In their Statement of the Case, Petitioners state that Linda was unable to progress further than a third-grade scholastic level at school and was unable to respond effectively to efforts at vocational training. These statements have never heretofore appeared in the record of this case, and they are given without appendix or record citation by Petitioners. Additionally, they conflict directly with the petition which was presented to Judge Irving for his approval. In the petition it was stated that Linda was proceeding normally through school. Actually, at age 15 she was well beyond the third grade. Also, in their Statement of the Case, Petitioners for the first time maintain that the tubal ligation performed on Linda was reversible. Nothing in the record warrants that assertion.

Although the record of this case contains no evidence regarding the possibility of reversal of the tubal ligation (because the issue has never arisen and reversibility has never been suggested by Petitioners) medical experts generally agree that reversibility depends upon the procedure used in the performance of the tubal ligation - and it is always a long-shot gamble. Dr. Morrow performed the tubal ligation and he has publicly stated that it is questionable that any reversal would be possible in Linda’s case.

Foreword

My name is Linda.

I would like to share the story of my life. My story is a very disturbing one, yet it is my hope that my life experience will help others who may have had to endure physical and/or mental abuse at an early age. I pray that my message will be heard by those of you who have had unbearable ordeals of this magnitude and have lived through it.

I will never get to experience giving birth. I will never feel life kicking inside my womb or carry this miracle of God to full term, or to have a part of myself and my husband’s - our own genes - carried on through the miracle of that birth. I will never taste the sweetness of the love between a mother and her child.

This gift has all been taken away from me, destroyed forever by the hands of a cruel mother and the local judge. Mother wanted to play a joke on me, and convinced the judge to sign legal papers to have me sterilized at fifteen years old without my knowledge, while they were standing on a street corner talking it over.

Many years later, my story is finally coming out. There is a wonderful ending, so sit back and absorb every word I tell you as the truth.

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Chapter One

When I was fifteen years old, I had a real bad pain on my right side. That’s when mom, Katrina and Barbara Lynn took me to see Dr. Morrow in Benton. He gave me a shot, but it seemed after a while that the shot wasn’t working and I was screaming in pain. This all took place on July 9, 1971, on a Sunday.

When Monday rolled around, I was admitted into the hospital and my mother told me I was going in for an appendectomy. In the hospital, they were getting me ready for the surgery the next day, and they gave me the enema; the nurse came in and gave me a back rub. Then the shots came. I kept hearing the nurses say make sure she is really out. If she finds out what’s really going on, she will run.

This all took place in a small room. I can remember the men all in their green gowns. They laid me on the table. I was cry’in for my mom but she wasn’t there. I saw this door that had two windows and I looked up to yell again, and when I did, a man in the green gown put a black mask on my face and told me to count backwards. Everything went black.

When I came to, I could see mom and my step-dad and my sister Katrina, but I was too sleepy to wake up. When I did wake up, I saw that mom was still there and so was my sister Barbara Lynn. I asked mom why she wasn’t there when I cried for her and wanted her there so bad. Mom just said that she had to go do something that had to be done. Mom and my step-dad left. Soon after I tried to sleep, but I heard this little baby crying so I tried to get up out of bed to go see where the baby was. I couldn’t find it, and then the nurse came down the hall, mad and screaming at me to get back in bed because I had just had surgery. I was try’in to tell her that I heard a baby cry’in. She said there were no babies up on that floor of the hospital and for me to get back in bed and get some rest. I did what she said, but the baby never left my mind. I still heard it in my sleep.

I remember there was one nice nurse who would come and talk to me and give me a back rub at night. I would always tell her how mean the other nurse was to me and that she wouldn’t believe that I heard that baby cry’in. She would only get mad and I couldn’t figure out why. The kind nurse seemed to understand.

I was only in the hospital for a few days before I was dismissed to go home. The bandage that was on me was a very long one. I was out of school for two weeks until I had healed and was stronger. Actually, I missed the hospital because I got some rest there.

I lived with my mother, my two sisters and my step-dad. After I was home a short while, I started hearing the baby cry’in again. The sound would wake me up in the middle of the night. I shared a room with my sister which made it hard because I would wake her up with my cry’in and she would end up very mad at me and she would start her name-calling and screaming at me, saying that I was retarded. I heard this seven days a week, even in the middle of the night.

It was a while after I had gotten stronger and healed up some, that the doctor told me to go out and take walks, that it