Reproductive Justice, Eugenics, and Health Policy

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering concepts of intersectionality, reproductive justice, legal landmarks, eugenics history, and reproductive technologies.

Intersectionality

The framework that analyzes how social identities overlap to create distinct systems of discrimination and privilege.

Intersectionality Categories

Social identity dimensions including race, ethnicity, class, language, religion, ability, sexuality, attractiveness, citizenship, mental health, and age.

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Legal scholar who coined the term Intersectionality in 1991 when analyzing how groups were disadvantaged by both race and sex at the same time.

SisterSong Collective for Reproductive Justice

An organization formed in 1997 by Women of Color (including Black, Indigenous, Latina, and Asian American women) to center marginalized perspectives in reproductive activism.

Four Pillars of Reproductive Justice

A framework defined by SisterSong as the human right to: 1. Have a child; 2. Not have a child; 3. Parent the children we have in safe and sustainable environments; and 4. Bodily autonomy and sexual self-determination.

International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)

A 1994 conference held in Cairo, Egypt, where the SisterSong collective participated and brought the human rights framework back home; established that advancing gender equality, equity, empowerment, and fertility control are cornerstones of development programmes.

Cairo Consensus

An agreement to end widespread population control as a development strategy, advocating for an end to programs that withheld resources such as food help to get people sterilized (e.g., in Bangladesh).

Comstock Act

1873 federal legislation that prohibited the mailing of "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" materials, targeting contraceptives, abortion information, and sex education.

Roe v. Wade

1973 landmark Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion based on the 14th Amendment's right to privacy, using a trimester framework.

Hyde Amendment

A 1976 measure that barred federal Medicaid funds from being used to pay for abortions, restricting access for low-income individuals.

Harris v. McRae

A 1980 legal decision that upheld the Hyde Amendment by denying federal funds for medically necessary abortions.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

A 2022 Supreme Court ruling following over $49\text{ years}$ of anti-abortion efforts that overturned Roe v. Wade, ending abortion's status as a federally guaranteed constitutional right.

Shackling

The practice of restraining pregnant or postpartum incarcerated individuals with chains or handcuffs during labor, delivery, or medical transport.

Eugenics

Sir Francis Galton's scientific idea that traits such as abilities, personality, intelligence, and addictions can be passed down.

Positive Eugenics

Interventions promoting the reproduction of those having more desirable traits, such as through genetic counseling, tax breaks, and birth incentives for the educated.

Negative Eugenics

Interventions preventing the reproduction of those having undesirable traits, such as through population control and forced or coerced sterilization.

Eugenic Sterilization Laws

State policies enacted in the 20th century permitting forced or coercive sterilizations of institutionalized individuals, disabled people, low-income communities, and racial minorities.

Buck v. Bell

A 1927 Supreme Court case where Carrie Buck was deemed a "moral imbecile" after becoming pregnant out of wedlock, resulting in state-supported sterilization of mentally ill, epileptic, drug addicted, rapist, alcoholic, and feeble-minded individuals ($65,000$ to $80,000$ total sterilizations, with California leading at $20,000$).

Puerto Rican Women Sterilization

Sterilization procedures conducted in the 1960s at $10\times$ the amount of the mainland, where women were uninformed that the term "tying tubes" meant permanent sterilization.

Demographic Transition

A trend where women entering farming and factory work, along with higher education and employment, correlated with decreased birth rates, leading to low birth and low death rates.

Paul Ehrlich

Author of The Population Bomb (1968), who warned of global famine and ecological collapse due to overpopulation, triggering widespread coercive population control initiatives.

Neo-Malthusianism

An ideology positing a one-to-one relationship between human population growth and environmental decline, based on T.R. Malthus's theory that food supply grows arithmetically while human population grows exponentially.

Sterilization

Any surgical or medical procedure that permanently renders an individual incapable of reproducing.

Tubal Ligation

A surgical procedure closing or blocking the fallopian tubes to prevent eggs from reaching the uterus.

Hysterectomy

The surgical removal of the uterus.

Vasectomy

A surgical procedure involving cutting the vas deferens tubes to block sperm.

Infertility

The inability to get pregnant after $12\text{ months}$ or more of regular, unprotected intercourse between a married or cohabiting couple; defined in the medical community as a disease.

Impaired Fecundity

The inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to full term.

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

An assisted reproductive technology procedure costing $\text{\$}15,000$ to $\text{\$}20,000$ per cycle (and up to $\text{\$}30,000$ with donor eggs).

Surrogacy

An assisted reproductive arrangement noted as costing approximately $\text{\$}100,000$.

The Motherhood Mandate

A societal norm pressuring women to become mothers to fulfill their social role, framing non-motherhood as unnatural.

Indian Boarding Schools

Institutions designed for the forced assimilation of Indigenous children by removing them from their families to erase tribal identity and culture, violating the third pillar of Reproductive Justice.

MIFE

Abortion medication (Plan C) used to block the pregnancy hormone.

MISO

Abortion medication (Plan C) used to induce contractions.

Assembly Bill No. 2482

California legislation focused on expanding reproductive health accessibility on public college campuses, including funding or stocking wellness kiosks with emergency contraception and reproductive supplies.

University Women's Resource Centers

Campus-based centers (such as Costo Hall 260) providing gender equity resources, reproductive health products (contraception, menstrual products), advocacy, sex education, and empowering spaces to challenge systemic barriers.