The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth CenturyMany 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. |
Other editions - View all
The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century Ian R. Dowbiggin Limited preview - 2008 |
The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century Ian R. Dowbiggin Limited preview - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
abortion activists Alan Guttmacher American Eugenics American Eugenics Society Association for Voluntary AVSC babies birth control birth control movement birth rate Birthright Catholic Chisholm Clarence Gamble clinics compulsory sterilization contraceptive Critchlow DT Curtis Wood doctors EngenderHealth eugenic sterilization eugenicists family planning Family Planning Perspectives federal female sterilization folder funding global groups HBAA HBAA's hospitals Hugh Moore hysterectomy ilization India John Rague Kaufman male Margaret Sanger Marian Olden marriage mental method million Modern America National North Carolina officials operation organization Oxford University Press patients physicians Pill Planned Parenthood political Popenoe population control population growth PPFA pregnancy president public health Ravenholt Relf reproductive Robert Latou Dickinson Ruth Smith sexual social society Sripati Chandrasekhar ster steriliza sterilization advocates sterilization laws sterilization movement sterilization program sterilization proponents surgical tion tubal ligation twentieth century United vasectomy Vogt voluntary sterilization welfare women York and Oxford