Some would say this still happens to some developmentally disabled young people today, at the behest of the caregiving parent. I am not in that position, so unless overt cruelty was involved, I cannot judge them in a one size fits all sort of way.
Does it still happen today, Lee? I thought there had been laws to prevent it. I do know years ago, many Down Syndrome children were sterilized. The parents saw that some were sexually active and didn’t want to pass on the gene/couldn’t take care of a newborn/knew that their DS child wasn’t capable of taking care of an infant.