Abortion and sterilization

“The lack of state supervision of pregnant women might have been responsible for the fact that eugenic abortion programs never materialized in the United States. The appeal that eugenic abortion held for American reformers suggests, however, the common heritage of sterilization and abortion. Depending on the context in which the surgeries were performed, both sterilization and abortion could either give women greater reproductive control or allow for the control of women’s reproduction (Schoen, loc. 1937).