reproduction-sociology-women's-studies
An important part of feminism as well as everyday life is analyzing situations with various perspectives, or multiple lens. In using multiple lens, one develops an understanding that experience varies greatly and is influenced by race, gender, socio-economic standing, age, ablebodiedness and sexuality. With respect to abortion, sterilization and birth control, the movement to secure women's reproductive rights has been dominated by middle and upper class white concerns at the expense of poor women of color.Debates around reproductive freedom and State policies have reinforced the black/white dichotomy that pits white women who are pushed into bearing children against colored women who are systematically denied the right to have children, or to have children in socio-economically advantageous environments. The reproductive rights movement was and to a lesser extent still is characterized by its failure to account for any experience that may differ from that of white middle to upper-class women. Focus on only the experiences and concerns of one group kept the reproductive rights movement from organizing across class and race lines, and thus kept it from realizing the true potential for change that could have been offered by a
Further, Black women's experiences of being raped, sexually abused by and often forced to carry the children of white, racist men made it hard for them to get involved in a movement who's goal was sexual liberation for women (Petchesky, xx). By 1937, Puerto Rico was experiencing a 37% unemployment rate, and the many landless and jobless people were deemed excess population by the overseers in the North (La Operacion). A History of Contraception: From Antiquity to the Present Day. Moreover, arguments advanced by birth control advocates have sometimes been based blatantly on rasict premises. Sterilizations continue to be federally funded and free to poor women, on demand (Davis, 221)WHAT ABOUT IN 1999? (SHOULD I USE THIS WHOLE QUOTE? The effects of the Hyde Ammendment are still felt today as sterilization continues to be the only affordable option for many women, and thus they are forced into it. The progressive potential of birth control remains indisputable. Opperation Bootstrap had many effects on population control programs in Puerto Rico. (GIVE MORE INFO such as the HEARING that made this mandatory [plnd prnthd]) The waiting period "burdens low-income women more severely because more wages may be lost, and expenses, such as for childcare, travel and hotel stays, may increase" ("Abortion Access," 11/12/99). The aspirations underlying the demand for 'voluntary motherhood' did not reflect the conditions of working-class women, engaged as they were in a far more fundamental fight for economic survival. With restriction or elimination of family planing services following increased mergers and aquisitions between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals, many poor women are denied access to contraception because they cannot find a provider, nor can they afford to travel to an area where they can receive these integral services. Current birth control issues do not present as devestating problems as original testing and eugenic practices, thouhg current problems surrounding birth control are extremely important to many women, especially poor women.
Common topics in this essay:
Education Welfare,
Women's Struggle,
Native American,
,
Angela Davis,
Hyde Ammendment,
La Operacion,
Davis16 Women,
Throughout American,
CHECK CARD,
birth control,
reproductive rights,
women color,
white women,
black women,
poor women,
rights movement,
birth control movement,
control movement,
reproductive rights movement,
la operacion,
reproductive freedom,
native american women,
women women color,
population control programs,
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Acceptance Essays
