Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare
Johanna Schoen
(Author)
Description
In August 2003, North Carolina became the first U.S. state to offer restitution to victims of state-ordered sterilizations carried out by its eugenics program between 1929 and 1975. The decision was prompted largely by a series of articles in the Winston-Salem Journal. These stories were inspired in part by the research of Johanna Schoen, who was granted unique access to summaries of 7,500 case histories and the papers of the North Carolina Eugenics Board.In this book, Schoen situates the state's reproductive politics in a national and global context. Widening her focus to include birth control, sterilization, and abortion policies across the nation, she demonstrates how each method for limiting unwanted pregnancies had the potential both to expand and to limit women's reproductive choices. Such programs overwhelmingly targeted poor and nonwhite populations, yet they also extended a measure of reproductive control to poor women that was previously out of reach.
On an international level, the United States has influenced reproductive health policies by, for example, tying foreign aid to the recipients' compliance with U.S. notions about family planning. The availability of U.S.-funded family planning aid has proved to be a double-edged sword, offering unprecedented opportunities to poor women while subjecting foreign patients to medical experimentation that would be considered unacceptable at home.
Drawing on the voices of health and science professionals, civic benefactors, and American women themselves, Schoen's study allows deeper understandings of the modern welfare state and the lives of women.
Product Details
Price
$43.13
Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Publish Date
March 07, 2005
Pages
352
Dimensions
6.1 X 9.1 X 0.9 inches | 1.15 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780807855850
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About the Author
Johanna Schoen is associate professor of history at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Reviews
An insightful and engaging account of local, national, and international struggles over the control of women's fertility. . . . Should be read by students and researchers alike interested in the American South, medicine, state formation, and the intersections of gender, race, and class.--NC Historical Review
Schoen analyzes how news reports can water down historical complexity and stifle further discussion, and how apologies can mislead the public into thinking that problems have been solved and impoverished women's reproductive rights are secure.--Journal of African American History
Schoen works from a dazzling array of material. . . . [She] sifts through this evidence with remarkable care and tact, providing a picture of the changing nature of women's access to reproductive technologies over several decades. The strength of the work lies in how Schoen refuses to shy away from complex and competing accounts of a fraught set of topics. . . . A bold and innovative move to set the terms on which we might be able to write global histories of reproduction.--Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
[A] well-written book. . . . [that has] the sort of impact that many academics dream of initiating and rarely achieve.--Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Schoen successfully reveals what has been a misunderstood history of the agency and coercion involved in the relationship between women's bodies and the state. This book is a valuable contribution to the history of medicine, public health and welfare, women's rights and the impact of state policy on individual women and their families in the United States and around the world.--Journal of American Studies
Skillfully demonstrates the global impact of these earlier twentieth century debates and imperial relationships. . . . Schoen skillfully positions her work within the wider study of women's reproduction history.--Material Culture
The material on North Carolina [is] compelling and highly accessible.--Journal of the History of Medicine
Schoen's book is a must read for anyone interested in reproductive issues. . . . The reclamation of women's motivation in securing access to services, as well as the positive portrayal of some health and state officials, is a breath of fresh air.--Journal of Southern History
Deserves to be on the reading list of every women's studies program and to be read by men and women who wish to improve the health of both our female citizens and our democracy.--Winston-Salem Journal
Schoen has given us a well-documented twentieth-century history of the struggle over reproductive rights grounded in politics and culture, a richly nuanced sociological account drawing from interviews and original documents, and a passionate argument for the importance of securing the citizen's right to birth control.--American Journal of Sociology
This is an important study, one that rightfully places North Carolina's story squarely on the historical map.--American Historical Review
Schoen's book is a striking corrective to simplistic misconceptions that reproductive control had only negative connotations for working-class or African American women who were subject to eugenic state sterilization policies. . . . Schoen has provided a thoughtful, rigorous, and original study of women's multifaceted interaction with state reproductive policy.--Journal of American History
Although not indicated in either title or subtitle, this book's focus is North Carolina, 1880-1973. There is, however, nothing narrow or provincial about this impressive study. . . . It is impossible here to adequately convey the sophistication and complexity of the monograph. . . . All students and practitioners interested in women's health, social welfare policy, community medicine, social activism, fertility control, reproductive rights, pharmaceutical trials, coercive abortion, and sterilization programs should read this book. Essential.--Choice
Schoen analyzes how news reports can water down historical complexity and stifle further discussion, and how apologies can mislead the public into thinking that problems have been solved and impoverished women's reproductive rights are secure.--Journal of African American History
Schoen works from a dazzling array of material. . . . [She] sifts through this evidence with remarkable care and tact, providing a picture of the changing nature of women's access to reproductive technologies over several decades. The strength of the work lies in how Schoen refuses to shy away from complex and competing accounts of a fraught set of topics. . . . A bold and innovative move to set the terms on which we might be able to write global histories of reproduction.--Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
[A] well-written book. . . . [that has] the sort of impact that many academics dream of initiating and rarely achieve.--Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Schoen successfully reveals what has been a misunderstood history of the agency and coercion involved in the relationship between women's bodies and the state. This book is a valuable contribution to the history of medicine, public health and welfare, women's rights and the impact of state policy on individual women and their families in the United States and around the world.--Journal of American Studies
Skillfully demonstrates the global impact of these earlier twentieth century debates and imperial relationships. . . . Schoen skillfully positions her work within the wider study of women's reproduction history.--Material Culture
The material on North Carolina [is] compelling and highly accessible.--Journal of the History of Medicine
Schoen's book is a must read for anyone interested in reproductive issues. . . . The reclamation of women's motivation in securing access to services, as well as the positive portrayal of some health and state officials, is a breath of fresh air.--Journal of Southern History
Deserves to be on the reading list of every women's studies program and to be read by men and women who wish to improve the health of both our female citizens and our democracy.--Winston-Salem Journal
Schoen has given us a well-documented twentieth-century history of the struggle over reproductive rights grounded in politics and culture, a richly nuanced sociological account drawing from interviews and original documents, and a passionate argument for the importance of securing the citizen's right to birth control.--American Journal of Sociology
This is an important study, one that rightfully places North Carolina's story squarely on the historical map.--American Historical Review
Schoen's book is a striking corrective to simplistic misconceptions that reproductive control had only negative connotations for working-class or African American women who were subject to eugenic state sterilization policies. . . . Schoen has provided a thoughtful, rigorous, and original study of women's multifaceted interaction with state reproductive policy.--Journal of American History
Although not indicated in either title or subtitle, this book's focus is North Carolina, 1880-1973. There is, however, nothing narrow or provincial about this impressive study. . . . It is impossible here to adequately convey the sophistication and complexity of the monograph. . . . All students and practitioners interested in women's health, social welfare policy, community medicine, social activism, fertility control, reproductive rights, pharmaceutical trials, coercive abortion, and sterilization programs should read this book. Essential.--Choice
