Executive Directors Annual Report 1967

Author : Rebecca M. Kluchin
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 0813548314
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (135 download)

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Download or read book Fit to Be Tied written by Rebecca M. Kluchin and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-14 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1960s revolutionized American contraceptive practice. Diaphragms, jellies, and condoms with high failure rates gave way to newer choices of the Pill, IUD, and sterilization. Fit to Be Tied provides a history of sterilization and what would prove to become, at once, socially divisive and a popular form of birth control. During the first half of the twentieth century, sterilization (tubal ligation and vasectomy) was a tool of eugenics. Individuals who endorsed crude notions of biological determinism sought to control the reproductive decisions of women they considered "unfit" by nature of race or class, and used surgery to do so. Incorporating first-person narratives, court cases, and official records, Rebecca M. Kluchin examines the evolution of forced sterilization of poor women, especially women of color, in the second half of the century and contrasts it with demands for contraceptive sterilization made by white women and men. She chronicles public acceptance during an era of reproductive and sexual freedom, and the subsequent replacement of the eugenics movement with "neo-eugenic" standards that continued to influence American medical practice, family planning, public policy, and popular sentiment.