Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

Super Short Summary

Killing the Black Body by Dorothy E. Roberts examines the historical and modern infringements on the reproductive rights of African American women in the United States, spanning from the antebellum era to the 1990s. The book illustrates how federal and state policies have controlled Black women’s reproduction through coercive practices like forced sterilization, biased drug prosecutions, and welfare-linked contraceptive mandates, while highlighting the racial biases in reproductive technologies like IVF. Roberts argues for a reframing of reproductive rights to include the infrastructure for healthy pregnancies and parent-child relationships, focusing on the experiences of Black women as a central component of these discussions. The book addresses sensitive topics such as rape, drug use, sexual abuse, and medical abuse.