In the United States, systems and methods of reproductive control and family regulation/policing developed alongside and as part of the prison industrial complex.
Public health institutions have contributed to this system by uncritically participating in mandatory reporting or forced drug testing of pregnant people, as well as offering public health models for prevention and intervention that focus on blaming the individual, and fail to prioritize addressing structural problems, such as poverty. Family regulation and reproductive control take many forms, including but not limited to:
Resources in this section chronicle from pregnancy to young adulthood, how mechanisms of how family policing systems (often considered child welfare) and criminalization of reproduction autonomy and abortion extend the criminal legal system. When the focus is on surveillance and control, there is a disproportionate impact on Black and Indigenous families, and families caught in this system often end up being criminalized.
Selected Resources
Discussion Questions
Who To Follow
For Further Learning
Sign on to the Health, Healing Justice & Liberation Statement: Statement from Medical Practitioners, Public Health Practitioners, Healers, and Birthworkers condemning forced sterilizations at Irwin County Detention Center and calling for full transformation of health systems to repair the harm and identify three ways you can practice your commitment in your public health work.
Identify your role on Interrupting Criminalization: Resisting Criminalization of Reproductive Autonomy and work to integrate the recommendations into your work.
If you work in a people-facing role, identify tangible steps that you and your colleagues can take to reduce the harms of mandatory reporting and ways that you can advocate to change mandatory reporting policies.
About TowardsAbolition.com
TowardsAbolition.com is a learning and action guide developed for people
involved in the public health field including students, researchers, and practitioners.
Contact Us
towardsabolitioninpublichealth@gmail.com
Last updated May 2021