Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the US-Mexico Borderlands

by Lina-Maria Murillo

Genres: Academic, Feminism, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

Published January 7, 2025

Reviews

[Sunny Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eugenics and the birth control movement 🤦🏻‍♀️

Amerikkkan SStandard aKKLademiKKK English (as Reem said)

[Daphne · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think that the book was really accessible and i much appreciated Dr. Murillo’s engagement with upper class euro-amerikan women as oppressive forces in mexican-origin women’s lives, but I wish that there was more engagement with how euro-amerikan women regardless of class benefit from the superexploitation of poor mexican-origin women on both sides of the border

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who's new to this topic, I found that this book did a good job of explaining the history of the birth control movement in the borderlands. The theoretical lens used to analyze the events mentioned in the book felt underdeveloped, but the events and evidence presented are substantial enough to make a strong case on their own.

[[charlotte]]

read for class 🤓👍

[Lisa Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Murillo’s work interweaving the advancement of white supremacist ideology and eugenics with reproductive control is massively important. So many antiabortion narratives that claim to be pro Black and pro immigrant hone in on the history of reproductive medicine as a reason for “untrustworthy actors” in the reproductive movement, when the actors who pushed for population control of those communities back then are the same ones pushing for control within immigration crackdowns and anti bodily autonomy policies today.

Thankfully all of the history that speaks to this is presented in an accessible manner in this book.

[leireads · Rating 4 out of 5]

really accessible book for anyone interested in the topic, specially relevant in our present day political landscape