{"id":452842,"date":"2020-09-22T20:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T00:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=452842"},"modified":"2020-09-29T12:13:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T16:13:01","slug":"detained-migrants-reproductive-abuses-medical-neglect-452842","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/detained-migrants-reproductive-abuses-medical-neglect-452842\/","title":{"rendered":"Detained migrants susceptible to a range of\u00a0reproductive abuses and medical neglect"},"content":{"rendered":"

The history of eugenics in the United States leaves today\u2019s migrant women vulnerable, argues\u00a0Brianna Theobald, an assistant professor of history at the\u00a0University of Rochester<\/a>, in a\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0\u201cMade by History\u201d op-ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Theobald writes in response to a whistleblower complaint<\/a>, which claims that a migrant detention facility\u2014the Irwin County Detention Center\u2014has been the site of \u201cegregious reproductive injustices,\u201d\u00a0including alleged coerced hysterectomies.<\/p>\n

The author of Reproduction on the Reservation: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Colonialism in the Long Twentieth Century<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(University of North Carolina Press, 2019), Theobald argues that the \u201cstructural vulnerability of detained migrants leaves them susceptible, as has historically been the case for many marginalized communities, to a range of\u00a0reproductive abuses<\/a>, as well as to medical neglect and inadequate care.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Theobald, these alleged abuses occur in systems that are driven by \u201cdangerous ideas about racial hierarchies and eugenic interventions.\u201d She writes that \u201ctoday\u2019s allegations of coerced hysterectomies and sterilization echo the history of eugenics and neo-eugenics,\u201d noting that:<\/p>\n

Prominent eugenicist Charles Davenport defined the practice of eugenics as \u2018the science of the improvement of the human race by better breeding.\u2019\u00a0Eugenics gained popularity in the United States in the early 20th century, appealing broadly across the political spectrum because it promised a scientific solution to social problems stemming from industrialization, urbanization, immigration and changing gender norms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Theobald further explains the now-discredited notion of eugenics: \u201cThe theory held the human race could be improved by encouraging the reproduction of \u2018fit\u2019 individuals, specifically the white middle-class families whose declining fertility rates had become the source of much anxiety, and discouraging the reproduction of individuals believed to possess undesirable traits.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then outlines several cases of sterilization targeting marginalized populations in US history, including on\u00a0the\u00a0Crow Reservation in Montana in the 1930s and in California prisons during the late 1990s and early 2000s, while highlighting the ongoing work of the reproductive justice movement.<\/p>\n