Immigrant Women

“In the United States, 15 states have laws that fail to protect women with disabilities from involuntary sterilization” (Against her will). Sterilization of disabled women in the United States should not be allowed. It denies disabled women the rights of having children. It is sexist to force women to get sterilized but men do not have to get sterilized. Women should have the right to have children, no matter if they have a disability or if something is wrong with her. The United States has used forced sterilization along with other countries in North and South America, along with places such as Asia and Africa.

While across the United States exists considerable numbers of birth tourism, there is one state in particular that research shows to have the greatest activity. 1 Statistics highlights, “more than two-thirds of all births in Los Angeles public hospitals, and more than half of all births in that city, and nearly 10 percent of all births in the nation in recent years, have been to mothers who are here illegally” (Will). 2 Los Angeles is seeing high activity for birth tourism due to package plans available through agencies, “profit-seeking and sometimes illegal organizations that arrange accommodations and hospital visits for groups of Chinese women” (Brush). Immigrants from across other countries come to settle in the Unites States for better opportunity’s and a high percentage are from Latin America. 3 In fact, “the U.S. 4 is typically centered around people from

In the film No Mas Bebes (No More Babies) we are presented with the cases of several women who underwent unconsent sterilization at the County Hospital in Los Angeles while giving birth to their child. The situation takes a turn when a young Chicana lawyer decided to support these women and take the case to court against this institution, and we get to see an aspect of the control of population in the United States, and particularly the control of Hispanic childbirths. In the article of Elena R. Gutierrez, she also talks about the situation of the births control, and she uses information and statements from the author John Tanton who believed in the control of population, to avoid over population, and the possible lack of resources for the Americans because of the immigrants having many babies here in the United States. Both pieces of information, (the film and the article) clearly show us the stereotypes about Latinas and the way they were, and continue to be treated.

Eugenics Record Office, Harry Laughlin. He used a Model Eugenical Sterilization Law to implement the mandatory sterilization of the “socially inadequate” in thirty U.S. states and Puerto Rico (Designating Dependency, Seal). Laughlin’s Model Eugenic Sterilization Law spread throughout the U.S. between 1907 and the 1930s. In 1936 Law 116 entered into force making sterilization legal and free for women in Puerto Rico while offering no alternative methods of birth control. The thought behind this was that it was more effective to deny women the right of motherhood in order to incorporate them into the workforce than to provide affordable childcare services. (Forced Sterilization In Puerto Rico,

This article shows the way Central American immigrant women living in Tapachula in order to examine the gap between written policy and its execution. Often those women have to seek for services and important documents for themselves and their family. Immigrant women are blocked, delayed, and discouraged from accessing their rights to legal identity, healthcare, and regularization of their immigration status and other services, not because of restrictive laws, but as a result of negative and confusing institutional interactions with low to middle level officials. The author argues that, low to middle level officials action reveals the importance of a form of over official, subtle through which immigrant women are denied rights they are entitled

Although immigrant women play a big role in America’s society and economy, they have been constantly mistreated and looked down upon throughout history. Not only do they face the burden of the stratifications that their gender entails but they also struggle to adopt the American culture and norms. America was viewed as the land of opportunities and economic prosperity, a perspective that draws in many immigrant women who were willing to leave their families and possessions to come to this foreign country in hopes of a better life. In America, they faced many challenges as they not only had to work long hours but also took care of their families and do housework as well. They struggled to make a standard living out of low wage jobs and assimilating into America’s society. Today, the treatment of immigrant women has improved greatly as they have stood together and fought for their rights. Immigrant women have built communities and held strikes for better pay and treatment. Although America has made great strides in improving treatment of immigrant women, there is still social injustice. Immigrant women have come a long way from the first time they entered America until now, but their stories are often left untold and omitted from American history.

-Race or ethnicity: Historically, minority populations in the United States have had higher rates of preterm delivery. In 2007, non-Hispanic White women accounted for the lowest number of preterm births in the United States, accounting for only 11.5% of all preterm births (MacDorman, 2011). In contrast, non-Hispanic Blacks, Puerto Ricans, American Indians and Hispanic women had preterm birth levels of 18.3%, 14.5%, 13.9% and 12.3% respectively (MacDorman, 2011). The Asian minority had the lowest risk at 10.9% (MacDorman, 2011). Some studies have attributed such significant differences to racial disparities in resources and health care (Dominguez, 2008; Vanderbilt & Wright, 2013). However, other studies such as Menon’s et al, which looked at differences in White versus Black women, suggest that racial disparities in preterm birth may

Federal and state legislations can deny undocumented individuals access to public benefits such as healthcare services, public assistance programs, and public housing. Policy research details how approximately fifty-one percent of undocumented individuals in California are uninsured and are excluded from private insurance plans that would allow them to access valuable health services (Wallace, Torres, Nobari, & Pourat, 2010). Undocumented women are disproportionally affected in accessing services related to reproductive health care as well as prenatal care, which can negatively impact their health. In her research, Marrows (2012) describes how uninsured rates remain high among undocumented individuals even in sanctuary cities such as San Francisco that practice “right-to-care” strategies, aiming to produce inclusivity, and that create public funds for immigrants. This is primarily due to a shortage of

After the Civil War and Reconstruction, America began its path towards industrialization. This was a time where many had no choice but to enter factory jobs, work extremely long hours with little pay, and work in very unsafe environments. According to Sugrue and Gilmore in 1910 alone, at least 35,000 employees were killed on the job. Men were not the only ones who had to endure this work. Many immigrant women and children also found jobs in various factories. If the women working in these factories were to make a mistake in their job they could potentially lose their whole wage for the day. Immigrant children with no record of age could be put into the workforce as well, working extreme amounts just to help their family income. These children

“NARAL, recognizing the basic human right of a woman to limit her own reproduction, is dedicated to the elimination of all laws and practices that would compel any woman to bear a child against her will. To that end, it proposes to initiate and co-ordinate political, social, and legal action of individuals and groups concerned with providing safe operations by qualified physicians for all women seeking them regardless of economic status.”

Depending on who is in power politically at a given time, certain people in society are vulnerable to abuse. This author will focus on the topic of forced sterilization in America, as there are certain people in this country that are still coerced and forced into sterilization.

It is suggested that women should enjoy an active sex life without bearing a child. In La Operacion, women in Puerto Rico were forced to get sterilized in order to keep their job and the birth rate at three children per family. (La Operacion Video) Also, many women were not informed about the sterilization and realized that they could not have any children. The reproductive rights of the Puerto Rican women were used as an experiment and most women became upset knowing the operation could not be undone. In addition to sterilization, it was the only option that was free to the women who wanted to keep their jobs at a low wage and whose husbands approved rather than paying for an abortion. In relations to it, women in America started using Lysol as a birth control contraceptive and 507 of the women ended up being pregnant. Due to false advertisement, 193 women were poisoned and 5 were killed by the contraceptive. (Mother Jones,

In Dorothy Roberts’ book “Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and The Meaning of Liberty” (1997), we are challenged to consider the meaning of reproductive liberty. Dorothy writes: Reproductive liberty is a matter of social justice, not individual choice”. While this statement implies a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her body as an inalienable right, that was certainly not the case with thousands of Puerto Rico women were sterilized. Consent must be a decision that is reached with full disclosure on the choice being made. Without the knowledge needed to make an educated decision or if someone is threatened as in the case of the women in the “No Mas Bebes”, it is more coercion and manipulation than

The chapter starts the legal issues with sterilization, which is defined as preventing production by surgeries like vasectomy, oophorectomy, orchiectomy, salpingectomy, etc. These procedures can be perform voluntarily by choice with informed consent and compulsorily to prevent inheriting diseases – Not anymore. Another theme is wrongful birth for disable child and wrongful life, which cases brought behalf of the child because of physicians’ negligence. As mentioned in the text, most of courts decided that physicians are liable and responsible for wrongful birth within the statue of limitation to bring the case. However, only 4 states found that physicians are also liable for wrongful life. Dr. Horvath gave one example previously, which is that

Throughout the book Galvez continually uses immigration, fertility, choice (women’s autonomy), cultural practices, and family influence as major themes. Galvez explores the idea that while immigrating to the United States provided better health care opportunities for immigrant mothers and their unborn child, it also created multiple hardships for the immigrant mothers and family. A few of the hardships that were inflicted on the immigrant mothers were new stressors, social determinants, which were not worried about in Mexico. The new stressors include not having the social support they had in Mexico and the stress of work, food, and biomedical birthing practices. Galvez explores the idea of the women exercising autonomy in the decisions they make related to their child and the health practices they use during pregnancy. Furthermore, she investigates the idea that family influence cultivates some of the behaviors immigrant mothers partake in while in the United States as it relates to their native traditions.