Mothers, babies, and abortion at the border: Contradictory U.S. policies, or targeting fertility?. (December 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Mothers, babies, and abortion at the border: Contradictory U.S. policies, or targeting fertility?. (December 2021)
- Main Title:
- Mothers, babies, and abortion at the border: Contradictory U.S. policies, or targeting fertility?
- Authors:
- Hiemstra, Nancy
- Abstract:
- Migrant women's fertility—or more precisely, non-white migrant women's fertility—has long been the subject of fear and anger in the United States. This negativity is evident in attitudes, discourse, and policies around immigration, as seen in terms such as "anchor baby, " debates over birthright citizenship, and caricatured ideas of migrant women's reproduction and sexuality. In 2018, the Trump administration put in place a number of policies targeting migrant fertility in various ways, among them family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border, and the denial of abortions to detained immigrant teens. This article explores the apparent contradiction of ripping immigrant families apart, while at the same time essentially forcing the production of new non-white citizens. Drawing on feminist geographic and queer studies theoretical lenses, the article identifies three fertile figures constructed in contemporary discourse around immigration: the breeder, the anchor baby, and the bad parent. This approach provides a window into the enduring white, patriarchal, heteronormative nationalism particularly evident at this point in U.S. history. It also illuminates ways in which these policies collectively work to erase the United States' colonial past and present, and the centrality of racial hierarchies to contemporary global capitalism.
- Is Part Of:
- Environment and planning. Volume 39:Number 8(2021)
- Journal:
- Environment and planning
- Issue:
- Volume 39:Number 8(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 39, Issue 8 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 39
- Issue:
- 8
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0039-0008-0000
- Page Start:
- 1692
- Page End:
- 1710
- Publication Date:
- 2021-12
- Subjects:
- Abortion -- anchor baby -- fertility -- colonial present -- queer theory -- feminist geography
Political geography -- Periodicals
Geopolitics -- Periodicals
Policy sciences -- Periodicals
Territory -- Periodicals
320.1205 - Journal URLs:
- http://journals.sagepub.com/home/epc ↗
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/home.nav ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/2399654421998368 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 2399-6544
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 18367.xml