American Forced Sterilization: A Time Series Approach

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Abstract

The United States has a longstanding history of leveraging institutional power to regulate reproductive choices, particularly through forced sterilization and coerced birth control, disproportionately affecting marginalized populations (Head 2018; Luker 2015; Patel 2017). This study examines how biopower—defined by Foucault (1975) as state control over life and reproduction—operates through legislation and medical practices to enforce reproductive restrictions. Historically, laws such as the Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act (1924) and cases like Buck v. Bell (1927) established legal precedents that enabled mass sterilizations under eugenic rationales (Antonios & Raup, 2012). Although explicit sterilization policies have declined, contemporary practices—such as coerced sterilizations in immigration detention centers and birth control mandates in prisons—demonstrate the enduring nature of reproductive oppression (Moore 2020; Patel 2017). This research utilizes the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to conduct a comparative time-series analysis (1973–2023), assessing racial disparities in sterilization and contraceptive use. Through multivariate logistic regression, this study investigates which racial groups are disproportionately targeted, how sterilization patterns shift across time, and the intersection of race, income, and citizenship status in reproductive governance. By situating forced sterilization within broader structures of racial and gendered control, this study highlights how reproductive governance perpetuates social inequality among women of color specifically. The findings underscore the necessity for policy interventions that challenge institutionalized biopower, ensuring reproductive autonomy and justice for historically oppressed communities.

Author

• Desiree Salais, University of Washington