Elizabeth O'Brien offers a compelling contribution to the expanding historical study of reproductive health in the Americas. Of central concern is the relationship between the developing science of surgery and the experience of obstetric violence among childbearing Mexicans over time. Rooted in contemporary struggles over reproductive health justice, O'Brien's study argues that modern pro-life claims about fetal personhood are intimately tied to obstetric racism and that both phenomena stem from a long history of surgical force used against racialized and marginalized women. Moreover, she claims that this history is the key to understanding—and, by implication, addressing—ongoing clashes over reproductive health equity. The book thus joins a wider conversation about the uses of historical scholarship in contemporary health policy today. Published in the wake of Mexico's federal decriminalization of abortion and the US Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the book prompts urgent questions about the...
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