Decriminalization Movements

In our last unit, we studied the complex historic origin story of laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy, abortion, contraception, and gender identity--the contingent and unpredictable religious, commercial, political, and medical forces that pushed the United States away to adopt intensive regulatory regimes. In this unit, we will study the decriminalization movements that helped to shape our current cultural contests. We will consider what decriminalization means--practically and symbolically--and what made it possible. We will also consider its limits and the ways that decriminalization movements left openings for those committed to outlawing certain aspects of gender, sexuality, and reproduction. 

First, we will study the fight to decriminalize birth control, a battle that started in earnest in the early twentieth century and raged on well into the 1970s. The birth control movement was complex and changed over time; it drew on arguments about eugenics, commercial profit, autonomy for women, and anxiety about state interference. We will read about the strategies of groups that favored access to birth control. Early birth controllers aligned with the labor movement and framed control of fertility as a necessary step for workers seeking more autonomy. Eventually, for ideological and strategic reasons, some birth controllers also aligned with the eugenic legal reform movement, which passed compulsory sterilization laws like the one at issue in Buck v. Bell. This move reflected widespread support for eugenics at the time--and a belief that reform would be more likely if birth control were viewed as a matter of eugenics. Especially starting in the 1930s, commercial actors, including condom companies like Trojan, threw their weight behind legalization, with complex and sometimes unintended consequences. Finally, lawyers and other reformers cast access to birth control as a matter of personal autonomy or human rights. 

We will study the influence and unintended consequences of these movements for reform. The course will explore how they shaped the doctrine and politics of birth control. We will also explore the limits of the idea of decriminalization as a model and consider alternatives. What would it mean to view birth control--or any reproductive issue--as a matter of positive rights?