Reproductive liberty has been an ongoing discussion and has developed historically over time. There has been a debate on whether incentivized sterilization and project prevention is safer for our society or whether it may do more harm than good. Throughout this paper I will examine the notions of black and poor women’s reproductive liberty and its relation to Roberts and Collins work, I will explore Project Prevention and its similarities to incentivized sterilization while explaining my opinion and whether this organization is helpful or dangerous.
Reproductive rights have been debated over time. We see certain trends throughout society when looking at the groups that are limited by reproductive rights. Reproductive liberty is …show more content…
These women that are being targeted are not just being stripped of their reproductive rights but also of their status in society. Dorothy Roberts proves this by looking at who is being targeted, “socially undesirable people” (Roberts p65 1998). The term “socially undesirable” has a major impact on these women’s status in society. If these women are automatically labeled socially undesirable what does that mean about their role in society? Limiting reproductive rights based on certain groups has an underlying meaning about their purpose in the world around them. This rule is a blatantly racist way to oppress women, Roberts agrees with this idea, “Eugenics advocated compulsory sterilization to improve society by eliminating its “socially inadequate” members” (Roberts p65 1998) If this racist way of controlling the population is deemed appropriate, what will stop people in society from oppressing these groups for that same reason? This is especially threatening to black women, Roberts sates, “the primary threat to the black community posed by coercive birth control schemes is not the actual elimination of the black race; it’s the biological justification of white supremacy. “ (Roberts p103 1998) The frightening part of this law is not only the law itself but the implications and view of these women in society. Collins states that representations of bad black mothers help create an interpretive climate that normalizes these punitive policies. (Collins p133 2004) This rule normalizes racist views of people in