User:Birthhealer00/African Americans and birth control

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Introduction
African American women and their participation in the birth control movement reflects the convergence of a dark history of sexual and reproductive abuse and Black women’s fight for bodily autonomy and reproductive control. Prominent historical figures and Black communities debated whether Black Americans would benefit from birth control or if birth control was another methodical scheme put in place to suppress the African American community.

early uses of sexual and reproductive violence during slavery and Jim crow as "birth control
During slavery enslaved Black men and women both were subjected to many acts of legalized sexual and reproductive violence. An estimated 58% of enslaved women and girls, aged 15 to 30, experienced sexual assault at the hands of slave owners and other white men (Prather et al., 2018). The United States chattel slavery system treated Black women as breeding machines to meet the demands of the economic system built from their labor. They were not given a choice when it pertained to their sexuality and reproductive rights--who they had sexual relationships with, when, and the outcomes of sexual relations (Prather et al., 2018).

Men were not exempt from this heinous system of sexual and reproductive control Labeled as social threats, enslaved men were publicly lynched and often castrated in order for white slave owners to assert their dominance over them (Prather et al., 2018).

Medical care for enslaved Black women often lacked, but when received, often involved subjection to medical experiments. The “Father of Modern Gynecology,” James Marion Sims, victimized enslaved African American women and girls in his surgical experiments without administering anesthesia. Black women were used as subjects in other physicians’ medical experiments, such as the perfection of the cesarean section and ovariotomy (Prather et al., 2018)

In 1865 freedom was granted to enslaved Black people with Emancipation Proclamation. Black codes and the laws of Jim Crow arose to continue to oppress and suppress the Black community. The sexual and reproductive abuses only continued as rape laws only protected white women, a direct threat to both Black women and men. Black women and men were victims of public lynchings, many of which involved the gang rape and genital mutilation of Black women (Prather et al., 2018).

Mary Turner was eight months pregnant when she was lynched by a White mob in Brooks County, Georgia, on May 19, 1918 for speaking out against the lynching of her husband the previous day. Mary Turner was hanged upside down from a tree by her feet, which were burned with gasoline. The mob then proceeded to pour gasoline over her body and burned her clothes off. Her abdomen was then cut open with a butcher’s knife and her unborn child was removed and stomped into the ground. Mary Turner was then shot hundreds of times by the mob (Equal Justice, n.d.).

Following emancipation, Black Americans no longer served much economic gain to white Americans. Growing African American populations were a perceived threat by white people. Consequently, beginning in the early 1900s, another form of Black population control emerged-- forced sterilization. Eugenics programs saw an emergence across the nation to control Black population growth via coerced sterilizations (Prather et al., 2018).

The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Male Negro,” known as the “The Tuskegee Syphilis Study,” served to examine the effects of untreated syphilis in men in Macon County, Alabama. During the study treatment for syphilis became available, but the Black male subjects were misled and denied treatment, receiving spinal taps under the guise of treatment. Conducted by the United States Public Health service, the study did not explore the outcomes of syphilis in women, though many of the subjects were married and had families. Women were excluded from the study because of their anatomy and the natural history of syphilis (Washington, D.A., 2011). In addition to the deaths and disabilities of the male subjects due to the disease, the wives of some of the men contracted syphilis and their children contracted congenital syphilis (Prather et al., 2018).

The abortion debate
Abortion continues to be a highly contested topic in the African American community with reasons that differ those of the mainstream abortion debate. Abortion and other forms of birth control have been stigmatized within the Black community due to the traumatic history of involuntary sterilizations that many African American women were subjected to throughout the 20th century as well as the history of abortion and infanticide during United States chattel slavery.

Angela Davis, a Black feminist activist and scholar, argued that Black women were not pro-abortion, but believe in abortion rights. "If ever women would enjoy the right to plan their pregnancies, legal and accessible birth control measures and abortions would have to be complemented by an end to sterilization abuse.

Davis speaks on the history of abortion and infanticide in the African American community in Women, Race and Class:

Why were self-imposed abortions and reluctant acts of infanticide such common occurrences during slavery? Not because Black women had discovered solutions to their predicament, but rather because they were desperate. Abortions and infanticides were acts of desperation, motivated not by the biological birth process but by the oppressive conditions of slavery. Most of these women, no doubt, would have expressed their deepest resentment had someone hailed their abortions as a stepping stone toward freedom (Davis, A.Y., 1982)

This traumatic past has influenced the community to believe that abortions continue to serve as acts of desperation rather than an assertion of a woman's freedom and right to her body.

African American anti-abortion movement
As the abortion debate has continued, there has been a surge of Black anti-abortion groups. These organizations believe that the womb is the "most dangerous place for an African-American child." Similar to the views of Marcus Garvey, Black anti-abortionists view the abortion movement as an attack on the African American community as a form of genocide and a push for eugenics (Anti-abortion). Planned Parenthood and the actions of founder Margaret Sanger have become a focal point for these movements, believing their efforts continue to serve to harm Black women. Black women account for over 28% of abortions yearly, more than any other racial demographic. This statistic accounts for the reality that African American women also experience high unintended pregnancy rates, largely due to lack of access to comprehensive reproductive care, including birth control (cohen 2020). African American anti-abortionist ideals threaten the access that Black women have gained to reproductive care, something that is harmful given the high rates of unintended pregnancy and STIs, including HIV, in the Black community. Planned Parenthood services over 360,000 Black women a year with not only safe abortion care, but also affordable contraceptives, breast cancer screenings, and STI detection and treatment. (anti-abortion)

The reproductive justice movement
Reproductive justice, a framework created by the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, emerged in 1994 to surge a national movement that prioritized the needs of marginalized women and their families and communities. Reproductive justice is the "human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities" (sistersong) This framework transcends the argument of choice that the women's rights, reproductive rights, and reproductive health movements emphasized, as these movements represent the needs of middle class and wealthy white women. Reproductive justice deems access to comprehensive reproductive care as essential. This includes the right to and the equitable access to a safe abortion as well as access to contraceptives, sexual education, STI prevention and care, and other ways to support families.