Gagged: the politics of reproduction and U.S. foreign aid, 1961-2009

2016-06-23The debate over when life begins often exists in abstract terms, be it in the halls of Congress, in the pews of religious organizations or in the confines of a doctor's office. This dissertation shows the tangible, global impact of such conversations. ""Gagged"" looks at the ways Americans used the politics, laws, and cultures of reproductive health to proactively assert a notion of American values on an international scale. Beginning with the establishment of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1961, this dissertation delineates the processes by which domestic developments related to abortion and birth control influenced American foreign aid policies, concluding with the many incarnations of the Mexico City Policy. First implemented in 1984 by President Reagan and most recently repealed by President Obama in 2009, the Mexico City Policy prohibited USAID from giving aid to international nongovernmental organizations that provided abortions, that lobbied for liberalized abortion laws, or that worked with other organizations that engaged in such activities. A study in relationships, from the transnational connections between the U.S. and developing nations to the ties between different generations of policy, ""Gagged"" examines the far‐reaching effects of American social and legal change