Module IV | Reproductive Control
1
Module IV | Reproduction Control
Required Materials
-Roberts, Dorothy: Punishing Drug Addicts Who Have Babies
-Vicenti Carpio, Myla: The Lost Generation
-Film La Operación
The main learning goal and focus of this unit is to reflect critically on reproductive
rights and the social value of motherhood, in the specific case of nonwhite mothers
and using three historical cases: the forced sterilization of Indigenous and Puerto
Rican women, and the punitive regulation of Black motherhood.
In the sociological literature, the term “reproductive rights” usually refers to the
legal and human rights to reproductive health and the right to make autonomous
decisions regarding one’s own body and reproductive powers. Some of the most
important reproductive rights include: having affordable access to birth control and
safe methods to interrupt a pregnancy, freedom from forced sterilization, the right
to reproductive healthcare, the right to receive education on issues related to sex,
sexuality, and gender, and the pregnant workers’ right to be protected from
discrimination in the workplace.
For example, campaigns for abortion rights support access to free, safe, and legal
abortion, to end the practice of criminalizing and punishing women and transgender
men who decide to interrupt a pregnancy. To support abortion rights does not mean
to support abortion. Advocates believe that women should be free to make
decisions involving their own bodies, and emphasize that criminalization does not
prevent abortions from happening, but pushes poor women into clandestine clinics
and unsafe procedures, which promotes maternal mortality.
In her work, Dorothy Roberts links the force of racist stereotypes concerning Black
women to the punitive regulation of black reproduction by means of demographic
policies, foster care, and prisons. As seen in the previous unit, coercive control of
reproduction has deep roots into US racial and economic history. Female fertility
was key to the slave property system, especially after the abolition of the
international slave trade, when “the slaveholding class was forced to rely on natural
reproduction as the surest method of replenishing and increasing the domestic
slave population. Thus, a premium was placed on the slave woman’s reproductive
capacity” (Davis 1983:6). However, her children were appropriated to be sold like
cattle and she was not considered as their mother: slave women were “instruments
guaranteeing the growth of the labor force. They were breeders – animals whose
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monetary value could be precisely calculated in terms of their ability to multiply
their numbers” (Davis 1983:7).
Roberts argues that the contempt for Black motherhood operated by dehumanizing
stereotypes “that portray Black women as unfit to be mothers” legitimizes the
attack against their body autonomy (Roberts 1997:8), in order to intervene in and
take control of the reproduction of the Black population, and to justify and preserve
white supremacy. In the 50s and 70s, thousands of Black (Roberts 1995),
Indigenous (Vicenti Carpio 2004), and Puerto Rican (La Operación 1982) women
were forced into sterilization programs, a public policy of population control: “the
denial of Black reproductive autonomy serves the interest of white supremacy”
(Roberts 1997:5).
Of the utmost importance, “poor Black mothers are blamed for perpetuating social
problems by transmitting defective genes, irreparable crack damage, and a deviant
lifestyle” (Roberts 1997:3). This legitimizes and normalizes the criminalization of
Black mothers with limited resources, looks away from the structural cause of
racial injustice, and justifies racial oppression. In the words of Roberts,
White childbearing is generally thought to be a beneficial activity: it brings
personal joy and allows the nation to flourish. Black reproduction is treated
as a form of degeneracy. Black mothers are seen to corrupt the reproduction
process at every stage. Black mothers, it is believed, transmit inferior
physical traits to the product of conception through their genes. They
damage their babies in the womb through their bad habits during pregnancy.
Then they impart a deviant lifestyle to their children through their example.
This damaging behavior on the part of Black mothers – not arrangements of
power – explains the persistence of Black poverty and marginality. Thus, it
warrants strict measures to control Black women’s childbearing rather than
wasting resources on useless social programs. (Roberts 1997:9 emphasis in
original)
As seen in the quote, racist assumptions about Black motherhood, specially, poor
and working-class Black women, justify the denial of access to public resources
(education, health, and so forth), which are essential to protect them and their
children from the consequences of social injustice and institutional racism.
In the light of recent history, statistics clearly show that, in the specific case of
women, the punitive regulation of the reproduction of racialized and marginalized
social groups has been a primary function of the prison system. Between 1970 and
2001, the total number of incarcerated women escalated from 5,600 to 161,200
women, which represents a staggering 2800% increase (Sudbury 2005). Although
women represent 9% of incarcerated people nationally, they have become the
fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population. 60% are women of color
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(Black, Hispanic, Indigenous) and 80% are mothers who are likely to lose their
children’s custody.
For its part, the film La Operación explores the US-sponsored mass sterilization of
Puerto Rican women during the 1950s and 60s: as a result, 30% of the country’s
women were sterilized, without their informed consent. The women were deceived:
they were led to believe that they were being treated to prevent pregnancy, but
were sterilized. Preventing a pregnancy (through a birth control method) is very
different from losing the capacity to give birth (through a sterilization). The
programs aimed at bringing women into public birth control clinics, targeted the
poor. The government held poor women responsible for the high poverty rate in the
country. But mass sterilization concealed the intention of preventing the birth of
poor babies. The campaign was a population control technique.
In the case of Indigenous women, non-consensual sterilization jeopardized the
biological and cultural reproduction of Indigenous families, thereby reinforcing the
negative social effects of colonialism (including land dispossession, and forced
assimilation to white culture) and oppression, and hindering the emergence of a
generation of community leaders to pursue the ongoing struggle for Indigenous
rights and survival. In the words of Vicenti Carpio: “The legacy of sterilization abuse
for American Indians is a missing generation of children who may have learned and
passed down tribal traditions, ceremonies, and language and continued the fight for
cultural and political self-determination” (2004:51).
References
Davis, Angela (1983). Women, Race & Class. New York: Vintage Books.
Latin American Film Project (1982). La Operación.
Sudbury, Julia (2005). Global Lockdown: Race, Gender and the Prison-Industrial
Complex. New York: Routledge.
Roberts, Dorothy (1995). Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the
Meaning of Liberty. New York: Vintage Books.
Vicenti Carpio (2004). The Lost Generation: American Indian Women and
Sterilization Abuse. Social Justice: 31, 4.
Your Task
For this assignment, students will prepare an oral presentation centered on the
impact of reproductive control on the social value of Black and Indigenous or
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Puerto Rican motherhood. In other words: what are the intersections between the
reproductive regulation of women of color on the one hand, and prevailing racist
stereotypes (Roberts), and colonialism on the other (Vicenti Carpio & La
Operación)? And what is the what is the impact of coercive reproductive control on
the social value of Black and Indigenous/Puerto Rican motherhood?
For the presentation, students will incorporate Dorothy Roberts’ work, and one
further source, either Vicenti Carpio or the film La Operación. That is to say,
whereas Roberts is required, students will choose the second case of study,
according to their own research interests. In their presentations, students will
describe the selected cases (what happened and when?) and, subsequently expose
their answers to the question: Why things happened? To end, students will offer
their thoughts on what is to be learned from the selected cases.
Guidelines
• The presentation will be formal, as if the student were in front of a class.
The presentation will be structured, following a clear line of thinking.
Presentations will be no shorter than 5 minutes, and no longer than 7
minutes.
• Only video presentations will be graded (audio presentations will not be
graded).
• Do not leave this assignment for the last minute: technological issues may
arise. If so, use the link: Technology Help, for information on who to contact.
• Your full name must appear in the video presentation’s title.
• If you select the case of Puerto Rico, bear in the mind that Puerto Rico is a
colonial territory of the US. The film suggests that the colonial situation of
Puerto Rico is essential to explain why policies of mass sterilization were
imposed on the population.
• Students who have questions about the topic or the assignment, will use the
Q&A Forum or will email the instructor (link: Meet Your Professor).
• Students who would like to discuss the topic, the readings, or share any
other thing of their concern, directly with the instructor, can request an
online appointment.
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