Fit to Be Tied: Sterilization and Reproductive Rights in America, 1950-1980

by Rebecca M. Kluchin, Rima D. Apple (Series Editor), Janet Golden (Series Editor)

The 1960s revolutionized American contraceptive practice. Diaphragms, jellies, and condoms with high failure rates gave way to newer choices of the Pill, IUD, and sterilization. Fit to Be Tied provides a history of sterilization and what would prove to become, at once, socially divisive and a popular form of birth control. During the first half of the twentieth century, sterilization (tubal ligation and vasectomy) was a tool of eugenics. Individuals who endorsed crude notions of biological determinism sought to control the reproductive decisions of women they considered "unfit" by nature of race or class, and used surgery to do so. Incorporating first-person narratives, court cases, and official records, Rebecca M. Kluchin examines the evolution of forced sterilization of poor women, especially women of color, in the second half of the century and contrasts it with demands for contraceptive sterilization made by white women and men. She chronicles public acceptance during an era of reproductive and sexual freedom, and the subsequent replacement of the eugenics movement with "neo-eugenic" standards that continued to influence American medical practice, family planning, public policy, and popular sentiment.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Eugenics, Politics, Disability Studies

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 10, 2009

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2004, at the age of twenty-three, I entered my gynecologist's office to request permanent sterilization. My doctor repeatedly refused my request, and would not honor my alternate request for an IUD. I tried changing doctors, but still encountered severe resistance to my wish to be permanently sterilized. Now that the IUD I did eventually obtain will be ready to come out at age thirty, my doctor has still indicated that she will not perform the procedure.

After reading Rebecca Kluchin's> Fit to Be Tied, I am left wondering if my doctors' refusals to honor my wishes are, consciously or not, vestigial traces of America's bleak history involving positive and negative eugenics—separate categories for "fit" and "unfit" women. From the turn of the twentieth century to the late 1970s, social, legal, and medical authoritarianism and paternalism combined with white anxiety over losing social dominance in America to result in extraordinarily skewed, disparate policies of reproductive "rights" for white middle class women and poor women of color.

Read the rest at Feminist Review.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fit to Be Tied examines sterilization policies and reproductive rights in the United States in the postwar period to argue that the ideology of eugenics (which was believed to have fallen out of favour during the Second World War) continued on through what Kluchin calls "neo-eugenics". Instead of focusing on mental intelligence or "feeblemindedness", sterilization policy in the mid-century instead focused on "fitness" as a criteria around reproduction - though those who were considered "unfit" were largely racialized and/or poor women. In examining postwar public policy around forced sterilization, Kluchin also traces the reproductive choices available to American women in this period, and the ways "reproductive fitness" shaped who did or did not have access to choice. Pushing back against narratives around sterilization as something simply implemented onto women without their input, Kluchin argues that women, both deemed "fit" and "unfit" fought to have their rights around reproduction be recognized and used government policies around sterilization to do so.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well-researched and thoroughly. It is disturbing how different races had completely different experiences with tubal ligation- white women couldn't get sterilized if they wanted to, whereas women of color (Black, Native American, Latino) were victims of forced sterilization. it is just another horrific thing white people in power have done to minorities. Racial injustice has such a terrible history and such deep roots in our country.

I knew about eugenic sterilization in the early 20th century but had no idea it was taking place within my lifetime. It was a shock. Another surprise was learning how Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and NOW opposed laws proposed to protect women from forced sterilization, and that PP did partly for reasons of profit.

[Emmy M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough dive into the history of sterilization in the USA.

Read it for a paper I'm writing but the history of sterilization is something that is not openly discussed despite it being so prominent and complex.

[Chun Schmidt]

Asian

[Milton Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written and eye opening book. A must read for anyone interested in reproductive justice.