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Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare
In August 2003, North Carolina became the first U.S. state to offer restitution to victims of state-ordered sterilizations carried out by its eugenics program between 1929 and 1975. The decision was prompted largely by a series of articles in the Winston-Salem Journal . These stories were inspired in part by the research of Johanna Schoen, who was granted unique access to summaries of 7,500 case histories and the papers of the North Carolina Eugenics Board.
In this book, Schoen situates the state's reproductive politics in a national and global context. Widening her focus to include birth control, sterilization, and abortion policies across the nation, she demonstrates how each method for limiting unwanted pregnancies had the potential both to expand and to limit women's reproductive choices. Such programs overwhelmingly targeted poor and nonwhite populations, yet they also extended a measure of reproductive control to poor women that was previously out of reach.
On an international level, the United States has influenced reproductive health policies by, for example, tying foreign aid to the recipients' compliance with U.S. notions about family planning. The availability of U.S.-funded family planning aid has proved to be a double-edged sword, offering unprecedented opportunities to poor women while subjecting foreign patients to medical experimentation that would be considered unacceptable at home.
Drawing on the voices of health and science professionals, civic benefactors, and American women themselves, Schoen's study allows deeper understandings of the modern welfare state and the lives of women.
In this book, Schoen situates the state's reproductive politics in a national and global context. Widening her focus to include birth control, sterilization, and abortion policies across the nation, she demonstrates how each method for limiting unwanted pregnancies had the potential both to expand and to limit women's reproductive choices. Such programs overwhelmingly targeted poor and nonwhite populations, yet they also extended a measure of reproductive control to poor women that was previously out of reach.
On an international level, the United States has influenced reproductive health policies by, for example, tying foreign aid to the recipients' compliance with U.S. notions about family planning. The availability of U.S.-funded family planning aid has proved to be a double-edged sword, offering unprecedented opportunities to poor women while subjecting foreign patients to medical experimentation that would be considered unacceptable at home.
Drawing on the voices of health and science professionals, civic benefactors, and American women themselves, Schoen's study allows deeper understandings of the modern welfare state and the lives of women.
352 pages, Paperback
First published March 7, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 22, 2017
An amazing insight into North Carolina's terrifying history with eugenic sterilization. It's a shame this history isn't spoken about more frequently. Until I was assigned this book for my WMST course, I had never heard of eugenic sterilization in the US. Schoen really gives an incredible look at the stories of the victims, the agency women have always taken with their reproductive lives (even when the options were extremely limited) and the sick reasoning behind the eugenic sterilization movement. I finished this book cover to cover and really enjoyed it. It also facilitated great discussion in my class.
April 2, 2016
I became aware of Dr. Schoen and her research through the 2002 series of articles in the Winston-Salem Journal that were later published under the title Against Their Will. Dr. Schoen had access to over 7000 files from the NC Eugenics board. If anyone knows anything about the NC Eugenics program, it is her.
This was not an easy read for me because of the subject matter. I had to set it aside for days at a time to create an emotional distance from the information; however, it is a very accessible and engrossing presentation of the eugenics program within the larger framework of reproductive politics and history.
I thought it was thorough, even-handed, and extremely well-written. It's hard to make government panels and statistics interesting. It's hard to talk about eugenics without coming off as either sensationalist or cold. Schoen manages to avoid all of these. Her goal with this book is to inform and educate, not bore or pontificate.
Often discussion of the eugenics program is limited to talking about poor women of color being the victims. While it is true that later years of the program did increasingly target this group, I think it should be noted that in the early years of the program, it was not a race issue. (Or even confined to female sterilizations. There were men sterilized, too.) This book acknowledges that more than some others on the subject I've read.
I highly recommend this book to those interested in reproductive politics and/or 20th century history.
This was not an easy read for me because of the subject matter. I had to set it aside for days at a time to create an emotional distance from the information; however, it is a very accessible and engrossing presentation of the eugenics program within the larger framework of reproductive politics and history.
I thought it was thorough, even-handed, and extremely well-written. It's hard to make government panels and statistics interesting. It's hard to talk about eugenics without coming off as either sensationalist or cold. Schoen manages to avoid all of these. Her goal with this book is to inform and educate, not bore or pontificate.
Often discussion of the eugenics program is limited to talking about poor women of color being the victims. While it is true that later years of the program did increasingly target this group, I think it should be noted that in the early years of the program, it was not a race issue. (Or even confined to female sterilizations. There were men sterilized, too.) This book acknowledges that more than some others on the subject I've read.
I highly recommend this book to those interested in reproductive politics and/or 20th century history.
August 3, 2013
This is a nuanced overview of American reproductive policy in the 20th century. Schoen focuses on NC, in part because she was able to gain access to the Eugenic Board's records (!), and outlines who changing ideological, scientific, and cultural beliefs shaped health policy. I found her discussion of a eugenic-elective-therapeutic triad more useful than the usual coercive-voluntary dichotomy. I also appreciated that she viewed abortion and sterilization as part of the same, larger framework of reproductive decision making. The important distinction in Schoen's account is if a technology or policy seeks to control women or to give women more control.
Throughout the text, Schoen is clear that while policies were eugenic, individual women still navigated these policies for their own ends. She emphasizes that all too often historians see sterilized women as passive victims. Instead, her reading of the archive emphasizes that women made the best decision available to them. However, she also argues that "the best decision" may not have been just or equitable-- the choices available to the poor women, often African American, at the heart of her study were severely restricted by class, race, and gender.
The book includes a final chapter on American birth control efforts in Puerto Rico and India. This is a nice addition and places the sterilization issues in the US in a larger, global context. It does feel a bit "tacked on" but only because the rest of the book is so locally focused. It's a useful and welcome addition to America-centered discussions of reproductive (in)justice.
Throughout the text, Schoen is clear that while policies were eugenic, individual women still navigated these policies for their own ends. She emphasizes that all too often historians see sterilized women as passive victims. Instead, her reading of the archive emphasizes that women made the best decision available to them. However, she also argues that "the best decision" may not have been just or equitable-- the choices available to the poor women, often African American, at the heart of her study were severely restricted by class, race, and gender.
The book includes a final chapter on American birth control efforts in Puerto Rico and India. This is a nice addition and places the sterilization issues in the US in a larger, global context. It does feel a bit "tacked on" but only because the rest of the book is so locally focused. It's a useful and welcome addition to America-centered discussions of reproductive (in)justice.
December 6, 2015
I think this book tried to cover too much and as a result didn't cover any of its topics as thoroughly as it should have. In the chapter on eugenics and sterilization, it would have been great to learn more about the individual stories of women who were sterilized against their will, rather than just learning generalities. At the end of the book, the author makes it clear she had full access to the records- why not tell us a little more about what was in them? That chapter could have been a book in and of itself. Adding a chapter on illegal abortion, another on contraception, a third on contraception overseas...it was just a case of having too broad a scope, and, therefore, not really giving any subject the attention it deserved. I found all of it interesting, but I really feel she should have picked a topic and focused on it, not tried to make the book cover so much ground and therefore not have space to do each topic justice. Also, I couldn't help but feel like her extreme pro-choice bias hurt the book- her constant reiteration of how women needed total "reproductive freedom" a code word for unlimited access to abortion on demand, seemed to blind her to some of the realities of the subject she was covering.
January 4, 2010
Interesting and readable study of birth control, sterilization, and abortion policies in North Carolina, made more compelling by the author's own crusade to make the records of the state Eugenics Board public.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews