GWS 200 Lecture 22: _Racism, Birth Control, and Reproductive Rights_

• School: University of Kentucky
• Department: Gender and Women's Studies
• Course: GWS 200
• Professor: Mikaela Feroli

Document Summary

If the abortion rights activists of the early 1970s examined the history of their movement, then they would have understood why so many black women were suspicious toward their movement. They might have understood how important it was to undo the racist deeds of their predecessors, who had advocated birth control as well as compulsory sterilization as a means of eliminating the unfit sectors of the population . Minnie lee (12) and mary alice (14) were two black women robbed of ever having children due to sterilization. After the publicity exposing these two sisters" case, more cases were brought to light. Under the auspices of the eugenics commission of north carolina, 7,686 sterilizations had been carried out since 1933. Of those 7,686 women, around 5,000 of them were black. Revelations of sterilization abuse during that time exposed the complicity of the federal government. The health department of health education and welfare claimed that approximately.