What Can Feminists Make of the Eugenicist History of Abortion?
By Erika Rodriguez,
Minnesota Women's Press
| 05. 24. 2023
In a footnote to the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, Samuel Alito referenced an old right-wing talking point tying abortion advocacy to eugenics. He suggested that some pro-choice advocates were “motivated by a desire to suppress the size of the African American population,” and in dong so echoed Clarence Thomas’s 2019 concurrence in Box v. Planned Parenthood, which stated that abortion restrictions prevent “abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.”
In the wake of the Dobbs ruling, many advocates denied the historical ties between abortion and eugenics. Yet the inconvenient fact remains that early 20th-century abortion rights were frequently articulated in relation to eugenic standards of “unfitness” and “racial betterment” in ways that remain relevant today. Although we may most frequently encounter this history through bad-faith arguments aimed at stripping away reproductive rights, feminists have a responsibility to grapple seriously with the ties between disability, abortion, and eugenics.
Pro-choice advocates have argued that the early abortion movement was directly opposed to eugenic practices (such as forced breeding or sterilization) because its focus was...
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CGS is excited to announce the launch of a new anti-eugenics initiative that has been years in the making. Legacies of Eugenics in Science, Medicine, and Technology kicks off with a monthly essay series published at the Los Angeles Review of Books that will expose and contest the reemergence of eugenic ideas in contemporary health sciences, human biotechnology, public health, and medicine. Community and campus-based events featuring the authors are also being planned. The project is a collaboration among CGS...