The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century

by Ian R. Dowbiggin

Many would be surprised to learn that the preferred method of birth control in the United States today is actually surgical sterilization. This book takes an historical look at the sterilization movement in post-World War II America, a revolution in modern contraceptive behavior. Focusing on leaders of the sterilization movement from the 1930's through the turn of the century, this book explores the historic linkages between environment, civil liberties, eugenics, population control, sex education, marriage counseling, and birth control movements in the 20th-century United States. Sterilization has been variously advocated as a medical procedure for defusing the "population bomb," expanding individual rights, liberating women from the fear of pregnancy, strengthening marriage, improving the quality of life of the mentally disabled, or reducing the incidence of hereditary disorders. From an historical standpoint, support for free and unfettered access to sterilization services has
aroused opposition in some circles, and was considered a "liberal cause" in post-World War II America. This story demonstrates how a small group of reformers helped to alter traditional notions of gender and sexuality.

Genres: Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 2008

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this text, Dowbiggin examines the history of the sterilization movement in North America (though primarily he is focused on the United States) and how its actors and champions used and adapted the ideology of eugenics to push for legitimization and (later) popularity of sterilization as a form of birth control. Dowbiggin bombastically argues that this history has never been told (though Laura Briggs' earlier text Reproducing Empire suggest otherwise) despite the fact, he argues, sterilization had more impact than abortion or the invention of the Pill, nor has there been much focus on the movement's global influence - though this book only mentions the global aspect in the final chapter. This book represents the exact problems of Grand Narrative medical history, as its focus on actors and leaders neglects to consider how social factors outside these groups helped shape adaption of sterilization or even how factors such as race and gender might effect attitudes towards sterilization. This oversight is evident throughout the text, as this book feels almost devoid of gender or women - the group that is most impacted by reproductive policies, whether or not sterilization is applied to them. Particularly terrible are the sections where he discusses sterilization in the 1970s, which he seriously argues succeeded because doctors "changed their mind" in this decade with no reference to the consumer rights movement, the alternative health movement, the women's health movement(!!!!) as if doctors as a group are known for being reasonable and adaptable (laughable statement). Not to mention his entire framing of this text around population decline/declining birth rates is, itself, just neo-eugenics!!!! Obviously it's not Dowbiggin's fault he couldn't predict in the year of lord 2025, we would overtaken by tech bros pushing moral panics about declining birth rates, but my god surely someone writing a books about eugenics would clock this as positive eugenics bullshit???? I can't get over the lack of women in this book and the inability to examine why (some) women would actively seek sterilization while others would reject it.