CAULB Eugenics Culture and History of United States Questions Choose 2 questions below and answer each one in an essay. Read the question carefully and pro

CAULB Eugenics Culture and History of United States Questions Choose 2 questions below and answer each one in an essay. Read the question carefully and provide a thorough and clear answer. Each short essay must:all the details are attachedReproductive Justice, from page 1 to 57 Luibheid. birthing Reproductive Justice
An Introduction
Loretta J. Ross and Rickie Solinger
university of california press
Reproductive Justice
reproductive justice: a new vision
for the twenty-first century
Edited by Rickie Solinger,
Khiara M. Bridges,
Zakiya Luna, and Ruby Tapia
1. Reproductive Justice: An Introduction, by Loretta J. Ross and
Rickie Solinger
2. How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to
Foreclosure to Trump, by Laura Briggs
Reproductive Justice
An Introduction
Loretta J. Ross and Rickie Solinger
university of california press
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches
lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the
humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its
activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and
by philanthropic contributions from individuals and
institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2017 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ross, Loretta, author. | Solinger, Rickie, 1947–
author.
Title: Reproductive justice : an introduction / Loretta J.
Ross and Rickie Solinger
Description: Oakland, California : University of
California Press, [2017] | Series: Reproductive justice :
a new vision for the twenty-? rst century ; 1 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identi?ers: lccn 2016046912 | isbn 9780520288188 (cloth :
alk. paper) | isbn 9780520288201 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
isbn 9780520963207 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Human reproduction—Law and
legislation—United States. | Reproductive rights—
United States. | Reproductive health—United States.
| African American women—Health and hygiene. |
Women’s rights—United States.
Classi?cation: lcc kf3760 .s65 2017 | ddc 342.7308/5—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046912
Manufactured in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For the SisterSong family and my son, Howard
Michael Ross, without whom much of my life
would not have been possible.
May Ruby and Dean live in a world where
reproductive justice prevails.
contents
Introduction
1
1. A Reproductive Justice History
9
2. Reproductive Justice in the Twenty-First Century
58
3. Managing Fertility
117
4. Reproductive Justice and the Right to Parent
168
Epilogue: Reproductive Justice on the Ground
238
Acknowledgments 267
Notes 269
Index 325
Introduction
The two of us, Loretta and Rickie, joined forces to write Reproductive Justice: An Introduction so that we could introduce the concept of
reproductive justice to new audiences. As a scholar (Rickie) and an
activist (Loretta), we believe that we have made a book that will
contribute to the exciting upsurge of reproductive justice activism
and scholarship. We have read each other’s articles and books and
followed each other’s work for years with respect and admiration.
Making this book has deepened both our regard for each other and
our commitment to the principles of reproductive justice.
We chose to write this book in the form of a primer because it
is an explanation of the basic elements of our subject. Reproductive Justice: An Introduction offers an expansive explanation of
reproductive justice so that readers can learn about this creative
vision for achieving human rights protections. The primer will
also help readers understand how reproductive justice is signi?cantly different from the pro-choice/antiabortion debates that
have dominated the headlines and mainstream political con?ict
for so long.
1
2
/ Introduction
loretta
For years, as a human rights and reproductive rights activist, I
have needed historical and sociological information and analysis
to support my work. But I have had a hard time ?nding studies of
reproduction in America that did not marginalize women of color.
Most of the work by white writers supplied few, if any, perspectives on women of color, quite often treating them as afterthoughts
instead of putting their stories anywhere near the center of the
narrative. As a Black feminist, I am committed to focusing on the
powerful role of colonialism and white supremacy in determining
reproductive destinies. Without these perspectives, a great many
historical treatments leave almost everything unexplained. I
value Rickie’s work because for more than twenty-?ve years, she
has produced deep, analytical writing about the intersection of
race, gender, sovereignty, and class. As a world-class historian, she
carefully details the experiences of women of color facing political, economic, and cultural forces inimical to the concept of
reproductive freedom and autonomy. When Rickie invited me to
write this primer with her, I trusted that together we could offer
this emerging knowledge about reproductive justice in its most
powerful form, with lucidity, authenticity, and an incisive critique
of white supremacy and capitalism.
Presenting and preserving our two voices in this project was
a challenge and a joy. Because I was present when the reproductive justice framework was created, I offer a ?rst-person voice
and more than two decades of experience promoting this new
vision for reproductive activism. My years as one of the leaders
of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
gave me the opportunity to witness the excitement of building a
new movement centered on the needs of women of color grap-
Introduction
/ 3
pling with issues of pregnancy, birth, abortion, and parenting.
This radical, fresh vision brought thousands of new voices into
the movement. The reproductive justice vision spread out like
exploding ?reworks to touch off new understandings of the
intersections of many issues in the lives of women of color.
Rickie’s voice is that of a disciplined and compassionate historian. She bravely reinterprets historical facts, paying attention
to voices and perspectives of those most marginalized by
privilege and power. Her precise language and attention to
detail offer an authoritative example of what history looks
like when the lives of marginalized women are centered in
the lens.
rickie
Writing Reproductive Justice: An Introduction with Loretta is the
culmination of my work as a historian of reproductive politics in
the United States. I have been writing books for decades, preparing myself, without even quite knowing it, for this collaboration. My books have been serial efforts to answer the same group
of questions: Who gets to be a “legitimate” mother in the United
States? (And who do authorities consider “legitimately” sexual?)
Who is denied maternal legitimacy? What do race and class
have to do with “legitimate” and “illegitimate” maternity? What
do the government, the church, the community, and the family
have to do with deciding and enforcing answers to these questions? How have answers changed over time? And perhaps most
important, how does the maternal “legitimacy” of some persons
depend on and guarantee the illegitimacy of others?
For example, for decades, TV shows, movies, and other cultural
expressions typically portrayed white, middle-class, heterosexual,
4 / Introduction
married women as the mothers we all want to be and to have:
“legitimate” mothers. So what are Americans to think about persons who do not have all of these assets and resources to bring to
motherhood? Our political culture conditions us to regard these
mothers as inappropriate, “illegitimate” mothers in comparison. It
underwrites the idea that motherhood is a class privilege, properly
reserved only for women with enough money to give their children “all the advantages,” a deeply antidemocratic idea. Here we
can see how the nobility of white, middle-class maternity depends
on the de?nition of others as un?t, degraded, and illegitimate. In
turn, poor mothers have been branded illegitimate because they
do not have the resources that middle-class mothers do.
When I became aware of Loretta’s work and the intersectional, reproductive justice analysis she was developing along
with others, I knew that my work was ?nally “at home.” Listening
to Loretta’s lectures, reading her work, and paying attention to
the arena she was helping to de?ne added up to an intellectual
and political home base for me and my work in a way that the
disciplines of history and women’s studies have not been. An
intellectual and political location that draws on human rights,
justice, lived experience, uncompromising analysis, and straightforward language feels like the sturdiest, truest place to work.
As a white, Jewish teenager learning about the Holocaust, I
began to learn about other brutal histories of dispossession and
degradation, cultural destruction, and death. I began to learn at
the same time, through the civil rights movement, what ?ghting
for dignity looks like and about the power of voice. Since that
time, I have looked at champions of resistance as models. Loretta
has been an extremely important teacher and model for me for
two decades, articulating a constructive, human-rights-based
politics of resistance that envisions the dignity and safety and
Introduction
/ 5
meaningfulness of each person’s life. This opportunity I’ve
had—to be an ally—has been profoundly important, helping me
to see the deep connection between developing respect for others and oneself.
•
•
•
We begin this book with a history of reproductive politics in the
United States because as reproductive justice activists and scholars, we understand that the past explains a great deal about the
present and also shapes the future. When politicians, judges, and
policy makers make decisions that affect our lives, for example,
by enacting or upholding laws that restrict access to various kinds
of reproductive health care, they are building on the past. The
Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for
abortion, profoundly curtails a poor woman’s decision making in
ways that are consistent with—and further encode—older laws,
policies, and social norms that aimed to deny reproductive dignity to poor women.
Public discussion of reproductive politics today typically
excludes references to race, despite the fact that this terrain has
always been deeply racialized in the United States. Reproductive
justice activists and scholars argue that if we continue to deny
the 500-year history of racialized reproductive law and policy—
fashioned and deployed to maintain a country dominated by
“white people”—then the legacy of racialized reproduction will
?ourish in the twenty-?rst century and beyond.
Reproductive justice presents a real and present engagement
with the world of reproductive politics that produces new forms
of knowledge and different understandings of history. As you
will read, reproductive justice is full of free thinking that has
inspired many women of color and progressive white allies to
6 / Introduction
imagine a world in which people’s human rights are respected
and protected when they make decisions about whether to
become a parent.
Our mutual journey as friends and collaborators has left neither of us untouched. We have been enriched by this process
and are honored to offer our readers this collaborative gift.
a note about language and gender
This book recognizes the limits of traditional, biologically based
binary de?nitions of gender at the same time as it chronicles and
analyzes histories that these de?nitions have produced. We have
mostly used the term “woman” when discussing legislation in the
past that used language targeting women and mothers. When we
write about the present, we use terms such as “people who can
get pregnant and give birth” as well as “woman.” Our language
re?ects a range of gender identities and the diversity of people’s
lived experiences. Our language choices are based on several
principles. First, as reproductive justice authors, we do not want
to duplicate the prejudices that make transgender people invisible and vulnerable. Inclusive language re?ects a commitment to
the idea that not everyone who can get pregnant and have children is a woman (traditionally, a person with female body parts
who presents herself as female), and, in addition, that not all
women can or do get pregnant and give birth. So “woman” as a
general term is both too narrow and too broad.
Second, reproductive oppressions are not about genital anatomy. Reproductive oppressions stem from a determination to
exercise power over vulnerable persons and achieve goals that
have nothing to do with the well-being or interests of individual
reproducers. Third, reproductive decisions (such as whether to
Introduction
/ 7
have an abortion or to use contraception) and parenthood are
not about anatomy or body parts. Reproductive decision making
is about the lived experience of individuals, including, for many
persons, their drive to possess reproductive autonomy as part of
their achievement of full personhood.
“Woman,” then, (a person who presents herself as female and
may have a vagina and ovaries) does not describe the identity of
all persons who can or will get pregnant and give birth and mother
a child. A transwoman generally cannot get pregnant, and trans
men may be able to. Further, “woman” does not describe the identity of all persons who decide whether to have an abortion or use
contraception. Physician Cheryl Chastine explains: “We must
give primacy to people’s understanding of themselves. We can’t
advocate that each pregnant person be able to effect the best decision for themselves—while simultaneously insisting that people
who aren’t cisgender [persons who present themselves in ways
that are consistent with their official gender-identi?cation at
birth] should go along silently with language in which they don’t
exist.” 1
There is, of course, the danger that excising the term “woman”
in order to include transgender persons in our reproductive justice analysis can have the effect of effacing the particular lived
experiences of women, as societies have traditionally de?ned and
recognized this category of persons. Certainly the experience of
being a woman has generally included being targeted for various
kinds of sexual and reproductive oppressions and brutalities.
“Woman” is also a self-de?ned category, especially for those
denied the recognition of their full humanity, who embrace the
term as a particular marker of gender identity.
For some, overeffacement of the term “woman” can constitute
a form of erasure that is also incompatible with the principles of
8 / Introduction
reproductive justice. This book’s histories of traditionally femaleidenti?ed persons demonstrate how politicians, lawmakers, policy makers, the judiciary, and ordinary people have used the sexuality and fertility of traditionally de?ned women to achieve
speci?c demographic, political, and cultural goals—including
male supremacy—in ways that have depended on and guaranteed the subordination of these women to traditionally de?ned
men. It may be complicated and tricky to accomplish, but we are
committed to writing as inclusively as we can in the present
moment of rapidly changing terminology and conventions.
These observations about the politics of gender and language
(here and elsewhere) are being freshly developed in the twenty?rst century. This book applies the new insights inconsistently,
sometimes using “women and girls” and “mothers,” sometimes
using the term “individuals” and “parents” and other gender-neutral words. Let’s say this text is one ragged beginning to the project
of defying the gender binary and recognizing the need to develop
acute attentiveness to the politics of language in this domain.
on e
A Reproductive Justice History
Reproductive justice is a contemporary framework for activism
and for thinking about the experience of reproduction. It is also
a political movement that splices reproductive rights with social justice to achieve reproductive justice. The de?nition of reproductive
justice goes beyond the pro-choice/pro-life debate and has three
primary principles: (1) the right not to have a child; (2) the right to
have a child; and (3) the right to parent children in safe and
healthy environments. In addition, reproductive justice demands
sexual autonomy and gender freedom for every human being.
At the heart of reproductive justice is this claim: all fertile
persons and persons who reproduce and become parents require
a safe and digni?ed context for these most fundamental human
experiences. Achieving this goal depends on access to speci?c,
community-based resources including high-quality health care,
housing and education, a living wage, a healthy environment,
and a safety net for times when these resources fail. Safe and
digni?ed fertility management, childbirth, and parenting are
impossible without these resources.
9
10 / A Reproductive Justice History
reproductive justice and
human rights
The case for reproductive justice makes another basic claim:
access to these material resources is justi?ed on the grounds
that safe and digni?ed fertility management, childbirth, and
parenting together constitute a fundamental human right. Human
rights, a global idea, are what governments owe to the people
they govern and include both negative rights and positive rights.
Negative rights are a government’s obligation to refrain from
unduly interfering with people’s mental, physical, and spiritual
autonomy. Positive rights are a government’s obligation to ensure
that people can exercise their freedoms and enjoy the bene?ts of
society.
Reproductive justice uses a human rights framework to draw
attention to—and resist—laws and public and corporate policies based on racial, gender, and class prejudices. These laws
and policies deny people the right to control their bodies, interfere with their reproductive decision making, and, ultimately,
prevent many people from being able to live with dignity in safe
and healthy communities.
The human rights analysis rests on the claim that interference
with the safety and dignity of fertile and reproducing persons is a
blow against their humanity—that is, against their rights as human
beings. Protecting people against this interference is crucial to
ensuring the human rights of all because all of us have the human
right to be fertile, the human right to engage in sexual relations,
and the human right to reproduce or not, and the human right to
be able to care for our children with dignity and safety.
This history of reproduction in the United States pays attention to the ways that women have always been determined to
A Reproductive Justice History / 11
make secret decisions, pursue bold options, share information
and resources, depend on the support of sisters, friends, and
strangers, and take the risks they needed to take to make the
reproductive decisions they could make. Sometimes these
efforts were successful, sometimes not. Indeed, the reproductive
options that fertile people have are always structured by the
resources they have—or do not have.
Understanding the historical, legal, and technological contexts in which women have lived their reproductive lives is key
to understanding how women have seized particular spaces for
managing their fertility. This means understanding how women
have avoided conception and how they have had children and
been mothers when they wanted to. This kind of information
allows us to understand how women have been responsible mothers when they had children in the midst of the life they had, in
the midst of the community they lived in. The crucial point here
is that no matter what kinds of regulations the government, the
church, the family, or other au…
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