A History of Reproductive Rights in the US

Since the late 19th century, a woman's right to control her intimate reproductive life in the United States emerged as a publicly contested arena. This conflict and the stakes for reproductive rights has never been more fraught than now, with the loss of the Constitutional protection of abortion rights when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in the Dobbs decosion in June, 2022.This course explores the long history of women's reproductive lives in the US as the context for that struggle. Topics include the history of sexuality, birth control, abortion, childbirth, and motherhood. We will examine personal experience of these processes, and the religious, moral, legal, and policy frameworks that sought to regulate them. We also explore the series of feminist movements that emerged to protect reproductive rights, and the current political polarization. We will conclude by examining current court cases since Dobbs, both those that would protect reproductive rights and those that seek to further restrict them.