The history of eugenics in the United States leaves today鈥檚 migrant women vulnerable, argues聽Brianna Theobald, an assistant professor of history at the聽人妻少妇专区, in a聽.
Theobald writes in response to a , which claims that a migrant detention facility鈥攖he Irwin County Detention Center鈥攈as been the site of 鈥渆gregious reproductive injustices,鈥澛爄ncluding alleged coerced hysterectomies.
The author of 聽(University of North Carolina Press, 2019), Theobald argues that the 鈥渟tructural vulnerability of detained migrants leaves them susceptible, as has historically been the case for many marginalized communities, to a range of聽, as well as to medical neglect and inadequate care.鈥�
According to Theobald, these alleged abuses occur in systems that are driven by 鈥渄angerous ideas about racial hierarchies and eugenic interventions.鈥� She writes that 鈥渢oday鈥檚 allegations of coerced hysterectomies and sterilization echo the history of eugenics and neo-eugenics,鈥� noting that:
Prominent eugenicist Charles Davenport defined the practice of eugenics as 鈥榯he science of the improvement of the human race by better breeding.鈥櫬燛ugenics gained popularity in the United States in the early 20th century, appealing broadly across the political spectrum because it promised a scientific solution to social problems stemming from industrialization, urbanization, immigration and changing gender norms.
Theobald further explains the now-discredited notion of eugenics: 鈥淭he theory held the human race could be improved by encouraging the reproduction of 鈥榝it鈥� individuals, specifically the white middle-class families whose declining fertility rates had become the source of much anxiety, and discouraging the reproduction of individuals believed to possess undesirable traits.鈥�
She then outlines several cases of sterilization targeting marginalized populations in US history, including on聽the聽Crow Reservation in Montana in the 1930s and in California prisons during the late 1990s and early 2000s, while highlighting the ongoing work of the reproductive justice movement.
- Read the complete op-ed in the聽.
- Learn more about Theobald鈥檚 research into the history of efforts by federal and local authorities to manage the reproductive lives of Native families.
