The Politics of Reproductive Rights: A Conversation with Elizabeth O'Brien

Women's reproductive rights have been a contentious issue over the past few years in the United States. Both federal and state measures have been introduced that restrict women’s ability to make decisions about their bodies and reproduction, culminating last year with the Supreme Court’s reversal of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Though the US has been a public battleground for women’s reproductive rights in recent years, the debate about women’s right to bodily autonomy is neither unique nor new. In this context, what might comparative histories of reproductive politics beyond the US tell us about the state of reproductive rights today? And what is the role of religion in laws and policies related to reproductive rights?

In this episode of Then & Now, medical historian Dr. Elizabeth O’Brien offers a deep history of how colonial and religious powers shaped women's reproductive choices in Mexico from the 18th to 20th centuries, and explores how historical attitudes towards women’s bodies and gender roles are relevant to understanding reproductive rights in the 21st century United States.

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Elizabeth O’Brien is currently the Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine at the Department of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She will be joining UCLA’s Department of History in Fall 2023. Her book Surgery and Salvation: Religion, Racial Medicine, and Reproductive Politics in Mexico, 1745-1940 will be released by UNC Press in late 2023.