This is a flyer made to advertise a protest against Joseph Califano in 1977. Joseph Califano was the secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and opposed abortion ( “Mr. Califano on abortion” 1977). This flyer protested Joseph Califano’s speech at New York University. In 1973 the Roe v. Wade case decided that a woman and her doctor had the right to choose an abortion for the first trimester of a pregnancy. This decision was just a few short years before Joseph Califano started pushing his anti-abortion speech. The country just won part of the abortion fight and they saw Joseph Califano as a threat to that win.
This comic was made in the 1970s. It shows a doctor suggesting an African American women get sterilized because she is poor and can’t afford abortion. This once again goes back to minorities and women of color often being forcibly sterilized or being pushed into sterilization because they cannot afford birth control or abortion. This comic also touches on the issue of the government paying for sterilizations and not abortion. This is another tactic that forces those who cannot afford abortions to become sterilized, which in turn will cause them to not be able to reproduce which is the ultimate goal of the eugenics movement.
This article was published in the Coalition news in August of 1979. This article contains information about the Coalition fight for regulations on sterilization consent and contains information for those who may be thinking about getting sterilized. This article is significant because it informed women of dangers they may face if they want to get an abortion or become sterilized. While both were legal, and even if they consented to becoming sterilized, going to the wrong place could lead to catastrophic results.
This flyer is asking for groups and people to survey in order to obtain information about voluntary sterilization. The association for voluntary sterilization’s goal was to make known the beneifts of voluntary sterilization (VanEssendelft) and in this case they were searching for information on sterilization. This idea of informing prospective clients of sterilization is a new thought in the 70s. Before sterilization was a taboo, as was most other things relating to women’s reproductive rights. The association for voluntary sterilization now wants information on sterilization which was a new concept.
Similar to the comic designed about the African-American women who couldn’t afford abortions, this comic also discusses sterilization abuse for minorities. Designed in 1978, this comic portrays sterilization as a simple birth control method. It makes is seem like because a women won’t need an abortion if she becomes sterilized, it fails to point out that this method is irreversible. This comic pries on the poor population because sterilization is cheaper then birth control and abortion, and the thought process was that if the less affluential people become sterilized they will not reproduce, causing growth in that group of people.