Helen Rodríguez Trías

Helen Rodríguez Trías spent the majority of her early years in Puerto Rico. When her family moved to New York City when she was 10, Rodríguez Trías experienced racism and discrimination that shaped her activism throughout her life. Rodríguez Trías graduated from the University of Puerto Rico at age 31. During her residency, she founded Puerto Rico’s first newborn care center. Within three years, the child mortality rate had been cut in half.

Rodríguez Trías returned to New York City and headed the pediatric unit at Lincoln Hospital, which served the largely impoverished Puerto Rican population in the South Bronx. During this time, she became a prominent advocate for reproductive rights and maternal health.

Her work centered around the disproportionate, and often non-consensual, sterilization of poor women, women of color, and women with disabilities. Rodríguez Trías became a founding member of the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse and the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse. This activism ultimately led to the drafting of federal guidelines on sterilization. These guidelines required a woman’s consent to sterilization and required that information be offered in a language that they could fully understand.

Rodríguez Trías became the first Latina elected president of the American Public Health Association in 1993. To honor her work in public health, she received a Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001. Shortly after accepting this award, Rodríguez Trías passed away at the age of 72.

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