Internationalism and Health

1. Internationalism and Health Lecture: Reproductive Health in the Interwar Period Aaron Pascal Mauck MA, PhD 3/5/2013 DATE LECTURER

2. Reproductive Health before the War • Margaret Sanger and Birth Control • Eugenics and Reproduction • WWI and Pronatalism • Population Control and Internationalism

3. Reproductive Health before the War Interest in Infant Mortality coincides With the rise of statistics in the Middle of the nineteenth century. Mortality becomes an index of Progress Focus centers on maternal behavior And the socioeconomic conditions Encountered by the infant/child State & Private Welfare Agencies Stress maternal responsibility Maternity and childbirth become central objects of Progressive politics, integrating A platform of behavior modification and social change as the means to reducing Infant mortality Maternal Health goals increasingly align with the Suffrage Movement and other Claims for women’s independence Maternal health discourse functions for both the political Left and political Right

4. Margaret Sanger’s Interest in Birth Control Derived From her experience as a nurse working at the Henry Street Settlement and witnessing the destructive economic and physical effects of Pregnancy. Birth Control linked to multiple progressive social causes: suffrage, socialism, equal pay, and sexual freedom. Sanger became the most vocal advocate ofbirth Control, seeking alliances with a wide variety of Movements consistent with this political goal. By the twenties, the birth control movement became Global in scope, with efforts centered on Europe and The US, but extending especially to Japan, China, and India. Sanger increasingly cultivates connections with the Eugenics movement, which shares some (though not all) of her goals.

5. Eugenics & Reproduction The term “eugenics” and its basic principles Developed by Francis Galton in 1883. Refererred Loosely to the promotion of positive genetic Qualities. Linked to the rise of population research And genetics in the late nineteenth century From the beginning, there was nothing like a Singe eugenics movement, but early advocates Of eugenics tended to be highly racialist and Concerned with processes of social and Biological degeneration caused by modernity Many eugenicists advocated selective reproduction as a means of countering Modern trends, either by promoting certain births (pronatalism) or by restricting Births through a variety of social policies, including forced sterilization Eugenics strove for scientific legitimacy from its inception, but its professionalization Was limited by a lack of shared scientific foundation or social principles.

6. Poster from Second International Eugenics Conference, 1921

7. WWI and Pronatalism WWI revolutionizes new anti- personnel techniques aimed at indiscriminate death of military and Non-military alike: aerial bombing, Blockade, forced labor. Total Casualties from WWI ~ 37 Million. ~17 Million deaths, Including ~ 7 Million Civilian deaths Many war conscripts show signs of disability, suggesting the need for improved nutrition/public health New war realities underscore the Importance of population Management as a form of national defense General Eric Ludendorff: “Worse than the losses through the war is the decline in the figure of our population owing to the falling birth rate”

8. WWI and Pronatalism Following WWI, several nations develop Strongly pronatalist policies as a means of Rebuilding their populations. Pronatalist policies linked to a renewed interest On nutrition and maternal health as the Foundation of effective population promotion Opposition to birth control becomes widespread In Europe and the United States (“race suicide”), encouraging Sanger and other advocates to reframe their mission in international terms Increasing alignment takes place between Birth control advocates and eugenicists, Largely linked to population control in the Global South and among the dysgenic in the Global North

9. Population Control and Internationalism The Janus-Face of population management: Pronatalism versus antinatalism Challenges of technology: How to actually Control births? Homegrown eugenics: India, China, & Japan Challenges of International coordination And cooperation