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1/ @ICEgov secretly performing hysterectomies on immigrant women isn't a divorced issue. The US has an ominous history of performing coercive services on communities of color with women of color often bearing the worst consequences. Below are a few moments:
2/ Coined by Fannie L. Hammer as the "Mississippi Appendectomy", between the 1920s-80s, poor Black women were unknowingly sterilized. Hammer, an activist herself, was sterilized after presenting herself to the hospital for tumor removal.
…https://blackwomenintheblackfreedomstruggle.voices.wooster.edu/2019/05/01/what-the-mississippi-appendectomy-says-about-the-regard-of-the-state-towards-the-agency-of-black-womens-bodies/
…https://blackwomenintheblackfreedomstruggle.voices.wooster.edu/2019/05/01/what-the-mississippi-appendectomy-says-about-the-regard-of-the-state-towards-the-agency-of-black-womens-bodies/
3/ In la Isla del Encanto, Puerto Rico, poor, uneducated women were subject to the US' first large-scale human trial on birth control pills. The trial resulted in three deaths. https://www.bese.com/how-puerto-rican-women-made-birth-control-possible-at-the-expense-of-their-health/
4/ Between the 1960s-70s, immigrant women from California were unknowingly sterilized upon going into labor. Many women recall language being a barrier when presenting themselves to the hospital. The film No Mas Bebes documents their stories: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/no-m-s-beb-s-looks-back-l-mexican-moms-n505256
5/ These state-sanctioned abuses that willfully ignored women's agency to make decisions over their bodies continue to have serious long-term physical and mental-health consequences on communities of color.
6/ A part of the #ReproductiveJustice framework is understanding the US' racist, colonial history with obstetrics and gynecology.
7/ #ReproductiveJustice activists continue to advocate for the right of all people to make informed decisions over their lives and to access quality and affordable sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion and contraception.
8/ Follow the following RJ organizations for more:
@Latinas4RJ
@LatinaInstitute
@SisterSong_WOC
@SisterLoveInc
@NewVoices4RJ
@NAPAWF
& read @DorothyERoberts' "Killing the Black Body" to learn more on the US using reproduction as a tool of white supremacy
@Latinas4RJ @LatinaInstitute @SisterSong_WOC @SisterLoveInc @NewVoices4RJ @NAPAWF & read @DorothyERoberts' "Killing the Black Body" to learn more on the US using reproduction as a tool of white supremacy
9/ & if you have time, read my blog on immigration being a #ReproductiveJustice issue. @IntlWomen https://iwhc.org/2018/08/immigration-is-a-reproductive-justice-issue/
