History

Watch the online lecture, "Reproductive Politics #1" (22 minutes, 42 seconds).

Click here for the video with captions: https://youtu.be/9kuzyNnz5Mg

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Step 2: Inspirational History!

Watch this video about Queen Lili‘uokalani (1838-1917), the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii until she was overthrown by U.S. interests in 1895 not long before U.S. took over and colonized Hawaii a few years later.

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There's no additional reading this week.

Discussion questions:

There is only one discussion question you need to answer in the discussion forum this week: 

• What did you find particularly exciting, interesting, or challenging about the assigned content this week? 

But you can write some notes up in response to the following questions to help you think through some of the main themes in the history of reproductive policy.

1. How did American culture and the law treat abortions from the 1600s to the 1920s? Why do you think arguments against abortion in the 19th century (1800s) differed so radically from anti-abortion arguments made today?
2. Why did the concept of Republican Motherhood only apply to middle-class white women? Do you think that that the Republican Motherhood was empowering for white middle-class women? Why or why not?
3. What was Eugenics and how do you think it impacted women deemed "unfit" to be parents?