Elizabeth Roberts God's Laboratory Analysis

Control of reproductive decisions of black women is a highly prevalent a form of racial oppression in America. Due to this form of control, the meaning of reproductive liberty in America has been significantly altered. These issues are addressed in Dorothy Roberts’ Killing the Black Body. The novel demonstrates the way in which black women were consistently devalued as a tool for reproductive means, which in itself was a form of racial oppression. The novel also provides the reader with insight as to how experiences of black women since times of slavery have drastically changed the present day connotation of reproductive freedom.

Chapter 4, “Better Dead than Pregnant:” The Colonization of Native Womens’ Reproductive Health, discusses women's bodies being utilized as an experimental ground for reproduction and medical testing. Smith argues that racism plays a key role in the common anxieties about a rise in the global population. Even though population control organizations may claim to want to reduce the size of every ethnic and racial group, in the end, they often work to reduce populations of color. This reality leads to Smith’s argument of reproductive rights, which she views as a thinly veiled effort to destroy and control Native American communities. An illustration of this direct violation of women's reproductive rights was when the "Indian Health

Therefore, in the mothers’ point of view, their daughter's sexual encounters were commonly seen as their boyfriends taking advantage of their naivety. Such was the case for Emma, who reports telling her daughter, “‘You think he loves you? Se está aprovechando de ti, ya verás [He’s taking advantage of you, you’ll see]!’” (Garcia, 2012: 24). The reason behind this view is “the patriarchal control over women’s bodies” (Garcia, 2012: 24). Because women were seen as objects, the common explanation for female sexuality is that they were deceived by their partner. Victimization was also seen as a way to maintain both a girl’s and her mother’s reputation. The mothers interviewed were expected to take on the responsibility of raising their children. One of the tasks involved was educating their daughters of the dangers of premarital sex. Like the teachers of the sex education courses the girls had taken, mothers did not go in depth on different methods of pursuing safe sex. In the end, the cultural belief that a daughter who had been properly educated would prevent unwanted pregnancy and STDs through abstinence until marriage persisted in the lives of second-generation Latinas. By portraying their daughters as victims, the mothers would avoid having other relatives place the blame on them for not properly educating their

Often condemned as one of the primary societal problems of today, non-marital childbirth has been the subject of many sociologist’s explorations in an attempt to understand its rapid increase and growth in desirability. In their book Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage, Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas delve into the underlying reasons for the increase in non-martial child bearing, especially among women in low-socioeconomic communities. Through their two-and-a-half-year study, in which they conducted by interviewing over one hundred single mothers living in Philadelphia and Camden, Edin and Kefalas strove to understand why poor, single women were purposefully getting pregnant. Nearly eight years after Promises

In the US, black women are over three times more likely to die from maternally related complications than white women, and their babies are less likely to survive their first year (Oparah & Bonparte, 2015). Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth, edited by Julia Chineyere Oparah and Alicia D. Bonaparte tells the stories, experiences, oppression, and subjection of black women in the maternal health care system. Each chapter in the book explained a certain key point in the experience of black women and the health care system. In the following, I will discuss how the medical industrial complex or the introduction of medical treatments has not only stripped women of color, trans women, poor and immigrant women of their autonomy, but has sustained the hierarchy of patriarchy in the health system.

The early twentieth century was a turning point in American history-especially in regards to the acquisition of women's rights. While the era was considered to be prosperous and later thought to be a happy-go-lucky time, in actuality, it was a time of grave social conflict and human suffering (Parish, 110). Among those who endured much suffering were women. As Margaret Sanger found out, women, especially those who were poor, had no choice regarding pregnancy. The only way not to get pregnant was by not having sex- a choice that was almost always the husband's. This was even more true in the case of lower-class men for whom, 'sex was the poor man's only luxury' (Douglas, 31). As a nurse who assisted in delivering

Racism has been a part of America for a very long time and one that has seeped into almost every part of American society. In fact, scientific studies and beliefs have, for a large part of the 20th century, been infused with an underlying racism that has tainted them. For instance, in the years from the 1880's to the mid 1940's, the African American fertility rate, or the rate at which African Americans were producing babies, sharply declined. This was the subject of a number of scientific inquiries at the time which Jessie M. Rodrique has severely criticized as being based on racial stereotypes and racist beliefs. In the article titled "The African American Community and the Birth-Control Movement," Rodrique argued that the decline in the fertility rate of African Americans at that time was not the result of ignorance and poverty in the African American community but instead was the result of an understanding and conscious acceptance of birth control as a means of personal and racial liberation.

68-92). Andaya (2014) uses quotes from participants to explain the Cuban narrative of abortion (pp. 80-82). There seems to be a double narrative that is taking place during discussions surrounding abortion. One narrative designates women who keep unintended pregnancies as “undisciplined” (Pg. 82). Women are shamed for conceiving often, especially if they are of a lower class. On the other hand, there is a counter narrative which shames women who have had multiple abortions (Pg. 68). This shaming is disguised a concern for women’s health and fertility, where Andaya (2014) writes “The state holds that abortion is a public health problem…in 2004, 11 of the 54 maternal mortalities were abortion related (Acosta 2006)” in which Cuba has “linked” abortion to maternal mortality. Furthermore, Andaya (2014) also writes “…in 2009, more than half of the cases of female infertility among young women were thought

In Killing the Black Body, Dorothy Roberts describes the history of African-American women and the dehumanizing attempts to control their reproductive lives. Beginning with slavery, to the early beginning of birth control policy, to the sterilization abuse of Black women during the 1960s and 1970s, continuing with the current campaign to inject Norplant and Depo-Provera along with welfare mothers, Roberts argues that the systematic, institutionalized denial of reproductive freedom has uniquely marked Black women’s history in America.

Masters of Choice is a wonderful publication by Iris Lopez. Iris Lopez is an urban anthropologist who currently works at the City College of New York. She is currently the director of Latin American and Latino Studies and was previously the director of Women’s Studies as well. Throughout her professional career, she has worked extensively with the Latino communities within New York City. Iris Lopez has chosen to focus her work on gender studies, immigration studies and reproductive rights. Her professional and educational background along side of her exceptional research skills helped her to create the captivating publication Masters of Choice: Puerto Rican Women’s Struggle for Reproductive Freedom. Within this publication, Lopez looks at what she believes to be the roots of evil within the United States development and influence on Puerto Rico, as well as the Birth Control Movements.

The modern world is in the midst of reconstructing gender roles; debates about contraception, reproductive freedom, and female inequality are contentious and common. The majority now challenges the long established assertion that women’s bodies are the eminent domain of patriarchal control. In the past, a woman’s inability to control her reproductive choices could come with ruinous consequences. Proponents of patriarchal control argue against reproductive independence with rhetoric from religious texts and with anecdotes of ‘better days,’ when women were subservient. Often, literature about childbearing fails to acknowledge the possibility of women being uninterested in fulfilling the role of motherhood.

How has gender inequality affected women in Latin American countries? Gender inequality has affected the women of Latin America in a multitude of ways, but it can be argued that the division of gender equality is extremely prominent when analyzing reproductive rights and health care access. Compared to countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, Latin America is far behind in terms of civil rights and reproductive rights. The lack of rights is not in question; women’s barrier to reproductive health can be seen through anecdotes and statistics. The question thus becomes, is there a definite answer to why these rights are absent? Factors concerning the absence of reproductive rights include cultural norms and religion, but the one that plays the biggest role remains the lack of female political leaders in Latin American countries. What exactly is it that is keeping Latin America behind other countries in terms of being progressive regarding reproductive rights? Women’s political absence in Latin America has shaped reproductive rights and health care services immensely.

It is 1970. A forward-thinking schoolteacher named Jane Elliott wants to teach her class about racism. She devises an experiment with the children in her class, who are only about six to seven years old. This ground-breaking experiment not only demonstrated lessons in racism, but also had a strong and powerful message about self esteem and self belief. In this article, I will outline the experiment and relate it to the world of business and yet another tool to drive and motivate the people that work for us. This program taught me the seriousness of children’s beliefs. Even though it was only a grade school class and experiment, the children took it as real life. This is why the experiment worked out so well, because the children felt as though the

The Marxist criminalization of commercial surrogacy originates from the class divisions produced when the reproductive labors of poor women are exploited by wealthy couples. Because the parties within a surrogacy contract often are not autonomous equals and hold distinct relationships to the means of production, female surrogates unintentionally reinforce class divisions through their participation in womb commodification. However, there are also cases in which surrogates are not drawn from lower economic strata, so the possibility of their labor being “forced” by economic circumstances is attenuated. These include instances of altruistic surrogacy, in which the surrogate is motivated by a desire apart from monetary need, such as a wish to bestow a gift upon the

Female sterilization has been a popular method of contraception since the 1970’s. Despite the relatively high utilization of sterilization in the United States, there is considerable evidence that there is an unmet demand for the procedure among some segments of the United States population. In particular, low-income women may face significant system-level barriers to obtaining a desired sterilization procedure. (1822)