Reproduction and Society Interdisciplinary Readings

Introduction: Reproduction and the Public Interest in Private Acts
Carole Joffe and Jennifer Reich

Part I: Controlling Reproduction
1 Reproductive Justice as Intersectional Feminist Activism
Loretta J. Ross

2 "What’s Behind Declining Fertility Rates in the U.S. and What Lies Ahead?"
Ann M. Oberhauser

3 Forced Sterilization Policies in the US Targeted Minorities and Those with Disabilities – and Lasted Into the 21st Century
Alexandra Minna Stern

4 Reproductive Justice for Disabled Women: Ending Systemic Discrimination
Emily DiMatteo, Osub Ahmed, Vilissa Thompson, and Mia Ives-Rublee

5 Letter to Maria Van Vorst on ‘Race Suicide’ (1902)
Theodore Roosevelt

6 Motherhood as Class Privilege in America
Rickie Solinger

7 Reproducing Eugenics, Reproducing While Trans: The State Sterilization of Trans People
A.J. Lowik


Part II: Contraception and Sterilization
8 The Folklore of Birth Control
Linda Gordon

9 The Pill – Genocide or Liberation?
Toni Cade Bambera

10 The Fertility of Women of Mexican Origin: A Social Constructionist Approach
Elena R. Gutiérrez

11 Dissatisfied With Birth Control? You’re Not Alone: Mental and Emotional Health Matter Just as Much as Reproductive Health
Krystale E. Littlejohn

12 Male Birth Control Options Are in Development, but a Number of Barriers Still Stand in the Way
Christina Chung-Lun Wang

13 Agency-Without-Choice: The Visual Rhetorics of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception Promotion
Emily S. Mann and Patrick R. Grzanka

14 What Is Voluntary Sterilization? A Health Communication Expert Unpacks How a Legacy of Forced Sterilization Shapes Doctor-Patient Conversations Today
Elizabeth Hintz

15 Bishops and Bodies: Doctrinal Iatrogenesis
Lori Freedman

16 Army and Marine Recruits Are Having a Hell of a Time Getting Birth Control, and Experts Say It’s Hurting Readiness
Patricia Kime

Part III: Abortion
17 Abortion in the United States Before Legalization
Carole Joffe

18 How A Supreme Court Decision Limiting Access to Abortion Could Harm the Economy and Women’s Well-Being
Michele Gilman

19 Selections from Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice
Dr. Willie Parker

20 When Abortion at a Clinic Is Not Available, 1 in 3 Pregnant People Say They Will Do Something on Their Own to End the Pregnancy
Lauren Ralph

21 The End of Roe v. Wade and the New Landscape of Abortion Access in the United States
Jessica T. Barnes, Nancy F. Berglas, and Diana Greene Foster

22 Less Than 1% of Abortions Take Place in the Third Trimester – Here’s Why People Get Them
Katrina Kimport

23 Beyond Abortion: The Consequences of Overturning Roe
Lynn M. Paltrow, Lisa H. Harris, and Mary Faith Marshall

24 What You Need to Know About Surveillance and Reproductive Rights in a Post Roe v Wade World
Julia Slupska and Laura Shipp


Part IV: Fetal Rights and Constructions of Maternal-Fetal Conflicts
25 Reproduction in Bondage
Dorothy Roberts

26 The Policy and Politics of Reproductive Health Motherhood Preconceived: The Emergence of the Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative
Miranda R. Waggoner

27 Coercive and Punitive Governmental Responses to Women’s Conduct uring Pregnancy
ACLU

28 Selections from Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars
Carolyn Sufrin
29 Changing Roles of Doctors and Nurses: Hospital Snitches and Police Informants
Michele Goodwin

30 "Black Children Are an Endangered Species": Examining Racial Framing in Social Movements
Zakiya Luna


Part V: Pregnancy and Birth
31 The Biomedical Subjectification of Women of Advanced Maternal Age: Reproductive Risk, Privilege, and the Illusion of Control
Emily S. Mann and Dana Berkowitz

32 "I’m Just a Woman Having a Baby": Negotiating and Resisting the Problematization of Pregnancy Fatness
George Parker and Cat Pausé

33 Maternal Mortality in the United States: A Primer
Eugene Declercq and Laurie Zephyrin

34 Obstetric Racism: The Racial Politics of Pregnancy, Labor, and Birthing
Dána-Ain Davis

35 Stratified Reproduction and Prenatal Genetics in a Post-Roe United States
Megan Allyse, Marsha Michie, and Rayna Rapp

36 Transgender Men and Nonbinary People Are Asked to Stop Testosterone Therapy During Pregnancy – But the Evidence for This Guidance Is Still Murky
Carla A. Pfeffer

37 What Causes Miscarriages? A Doctor Explains Why Women Shouldn’t Blame Themselves
Rochanda Mitchell

38 Pregnant on the Other Side of the Border
Eli Cahan

39 The Liability Threat in Obstetrics
Theresa Morris


Part VI: Reproductive Technology
40 Infertility and IVF Access in the United States: A Human Rights-Based Policy Approach
Center for Reproductive Rights

41 Selling Genes, Selling Gender
Rene Almeling

42 Male Fertility Is Declining – Studies Show That Environmental Toxins Could Be a Reason
Ryan P. Smith

43 Making the Ethnic Embryo: Enacting Race in US Embryo Adoption
Risa Cromer

44 The ‘Chore’ of Having Sex to Try to Get Pregnant
Eliza Brown

45 The Belly Mommy and the Fetus Sitter: The Reproductive Marketplace
and Family Intimacies
Joshua Gamson

46 India’s Reproductive Assembly Line
Sharmila Rudrappa

47 Do Embryos have Kinship? Negotiating Meanings of Relatedness
in the Fertility Clinic
Heather Jacobson

48 Who’s Your Daddy? Don’t Ask a DNA Test
Nara Milanich

Conclusion: A Message of Hopefulness to our Readers

Biography

Carole Joffe is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and a Professor Emerita of Sociology at U.C. Davis. She is the coauthor, with David S. Cohen, of the book, After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but not Abortion. She is the author of several other books and over 100 articles and op-eds on abortion and other topics in reproductive health. She has won lifetime achievement awards from the Society of Family Planning, the National Abortion Federation, and the Abortion Care Network.

Jennifer Reich is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research examines how individuals and families weigh information and strategize their interactions with the state and service providers in the context of public policy, particularly as they relate to health care and welfare. She is the author of two award-winning books, Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System and Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines, and is editor of the book, State of Families as well as the NYU book series, Health, Society, and Inequality. She has written more than 50 articles and book chapters that explore vaccination, reproductive health, welfare, multiracial families, public assistance, and recovery after disaster.

"A truly impressive collection of ideas and research to help make sense of the ever-changing landscape in reproductive health, rights, and justice amid state attempts at coercion and control. A much-needed update to the first edition that should live on everyone's bookshelf."
Krystale E. Littlejohn, Associate Professor of Sociology and author of Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics

"A collection of great value not only to teachers, not only to anyone concerned with women's ability to be full citizens in a democracy, but also to anyone concerned with today's powerful right-wing attacks on health and family wellbeing. It includes the very best thinking on these issues available today." 
Linda Gordon, Professor Emeirita of History, New York University, and author of The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America

"Joffe and Reich have performed a brilliant act of intellectual beneficence. This one volume collects an extraordinary set of insights and analyses, facilitating a rich understanding the contours and content of reproductive politics today. Since dipping into Reproduction and Society once, I have returned to it again and again." 
Rickie Solinger, Independent hstorian, and author of Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know

"This book is a timely and praiseworthy compilation of articles spanning 50 years that explore the dialectic between private reproduction and public policy. Because the control and manipulation of women's bodies are as much a matter of culture and politics as about biology, teaching about the complexity of reproductive politics is never easy. Pedagogical attempts are more difficult due to the lack of aggregated materials accessibly written for both professors and students. This book contributes substantially to the scholarship on reproductive politics, and is impressive for its diversity and breadth of contributors."
Loretta J. Ross, Former National Coordinator of SisterSong and Associate Professor of the Study of Women & Gender, Smith College

"In this exciting new interdisciplinary collection, two leading scholars of reproduction assemble essential readings on contraception, abortion, pregnancy, and birth. Informative, nuanced essays introduce students to the intersecting politics of reproduction, demonstrating that these biological processes are also fundamentally social. Reproduction and Society will be a valuable addition to courses on family, gender, sexuality, technology, health, and medicine."
Rene Almeling, Professor of Sociology, Yale University, and author of  GUYnecology The Missing Science of Men’s Reproductive Health

"This anthology is a magnificently curated selection of articles essential to understanding our Post-Dobbs World. It is a vital resource and should be used by all those interested in learning why it is not possible to regulate abortion without regulating the people who need and have them."
Lynn Paltrow, founder, Pregnancy Justice (formerly National Advocates for Pregnant Women)