Legal scholar Dorothy Roberts’ work explores how the movement for birth control in early 20th century United States, intersected with eugenic efforts to uphold white supremacy through controlling a population rather than increasing reproductive autonomy.

“Black women were already practicing birth control when the birth control movement got under way,” Roberts writes in her book, ‘Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty.’

White-dominated birth control programs played into furthering racial injustice -- here are some excerpts from Roberts’ essay, ‘Black Women and the Pill’:

“The meaning of birth control is complicated by the racist denigration of black childbearing, including deliberate campaigns to limit black fertility; sexist and religious norms within the black community; and many white feminists' ignorance about the unique issues facing black women...

During the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of poor black women were coercively sterilized under federally funded programs. Women were threatened with termination of welfare benefits or denial of medical care if they didn't ‘consent’ to the procedure...

The dominant women's movement has focused myopically on abortion rights at the expense of other aspects of reproductive freedom, including the right to bear children, and has misunderstood criticism of coercive birth control policies. Attending to black women's perspective on the pill and other contraceptives can help to transform the movement for reproductive freedom. It can help us understand that there is nothing contradictory about advocating women's freedom to use birth control while opposing abusive birth control practices. Social justice requires both equal access to safe, user-controlled contraceptives and an end to the use of birth control as a means of population control.”

‘Black Women and the Pill’ by Dorothy Roberts: https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/psrh/2000/03/forum-black-women-and-pill