Settler colonialism, native American motherhood, and the politics of terminating pregnancies

Abstract

Theobald explores the intersection of colonial and reproductive politics in the United States and contends that for Native American women, the politics of abortion cannot be disentangled from the (ongoing) history of settler colonialism. The chapter provides an overview of two different historical “moments." At the turn of the twentieth century, as policymakers and social reformers promoted the assimilation of Native peoples, Euro-American observers stigmatized Indigenous reproductive practices and shifted the blame for reservation conditions from colonial policies to Indigenous women’s bodies and behaviors. In the decades following World War II, the relative inaccessibility of abortion for Native women, both before and after Roe, served to delineate the parameters of “choice," as Native women’s maternal rights came under attack in various forms.