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

Title: Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty
ABP identifier: ABP-W-0031
Creator: Dorothy E. Roberts
Date: 1997
Type: Book
Description: Roberts situated contemporary disputes about reproduction within a history of slavery, coerced sterilization, welfare policy, prosecution of pregnant women, and racialized images of Black motherhood. She argued that reproductive liberty cannot be understood only as freedom from government interference; it also requires the social conditions needed to bear and raise children.
Intellectual stream: Justice & allocation; Feminist bioethics
Verification status: Verified
Evidence confidence: High
Historical significance: Roberts situated contemporary disputes about reproduction within a history of slavery, coerced sterilization, welfare policy, prosecution of pregnant women, and racialized images of Black motherhood. She argued that reproductive liberty cannot be understood only as freedom from government interference; it also requires the social conditions needed to bear and raise children. The book challenged bioethical discussions that treated reproductive choice as an abstract decision by an isolated individual. It brought race, state power, economic inequality, and historical coercion into the analysis of reproductive technologies and policy. Its influence helped prepare the ground for reproductive justice as a framework distinct from a narrower language of privacy and choice.