College of Staten Island Professor Discusses Eugenics, Race Extinction, And Idea That Having Children Is Sole Expression Of Womanhood

We previously reviewed this book, Pronatalism, by Professor Sarah Benesch of the College of Staten Island (CSI).  

You may have noticed, particularly if you have ever read those mainstream women’s magazines such as Woman’s Day, Mademoiselle, Good Housekeeping, and others that there is a peculiar push for women to “have it all,” and that their “biological clock is ticking like this…” (from My Cousin Vinny), and other less powerful memes in popular culture.  These memes are there to encourage women to have children, no matter their circumstances, financial readiness, or emotional desire or preparation.  Procreation is the sole unique expression of womanhood, and that a woman with a career who doesn’t want to have kids has no stake in the future of America.

For those who were paying attention during President Trump’s first year, you may have noticed some peculiar statements by Vice President JD Vance about ‘childless cat ladies’ who are in charge of the Democrat party, and how those without a legitimate interest in the future, only available to those who do have children, are running the show.  We talked with Professor Benesch about some of these tropes, as well as the real women who have chosen not to have kids.

These women are, because of this choice, often ostracized by friends and family members, they may suffer breakups when they don’t wish to fulfill a partner’s desire for kids they don’t share, and they are often ignored.  They often are disacknowledged and ignored by the larger society which wants to pretend they don’t exist.  But these women do have a stake in the future, and they are very often pillars of their community.  While they might not have children, they often give of themselves and of their time in other ways.  They may volunteer, they may be a caregiver, they might become an entrepreneur, professor, or travel the world without being restricted.  They are often seen as selfish and self-absorbed, not giving back to the larger society as they should.

However, what ties these all together is eugenics.  Eugenics is the theory that there is a superior race (it was the central tenet that led to the rise of Nazism and the Third Reich), and that this superior race must reproduce or it faces extinction due to the overrunning of other races and other cultures.  This is particularly virulent against People of Color, and they can be Black, Hispanic, or even Native American.  Native Americans have been forcibly sterilized without their consent, as have Black and Hispanic women.  They went in for a routine gynecological exam, or they gave birth in a White hospital, and they came out without a uterus.  This happened quite frequently in the past century, once this could be carried out without the death of the woman being guaranteed.  It was most important to keep the numbers of these other racial groups in check so that White women could continue to produce the dominant race.

All of the tropes and memes about having children do seem to be targeted at White women, almost exclusively.  Most People of Color have not seen or had access to these memes and social engineering, since it was not targeted at them.  As Prof. Benesch mentions, if it was really the birth rate overall that was a concern, rather than the rate among White women, then immigrants would be welcome.  They often have large families, and they also contribute to the solvency of the Social Security system, as they pay into it without ever being eligible to collect it.

We discussed some of the issues related to the restrictive abortion laws across the United States, particularly those states that have arrested, prosecuted, and in many instances jailed women who had a miscarriage, even before the fetus was viable outside the womb, generally due to drug use and testing.  According to several articles from the Marshall Project:

An analysis of court records and medical examiner data over the last 23 years found at least 20 felony cases in Alabama, 14 in South Carolina and 10 in Oklahoma, as well as nine in other states where prosecutors have embraced some form of “fetal personhood” in bringing criminal charges after miscarriage or stillbirth. Many of the prosecutions resulted in lengthy prison sentences and life-altering consequences for mostly poor women who were struggling with addiction.

Seven of the Oklahoma stillbirth and miscarriage cases were filed in the last two years. In many instances, the fetuses were not developed enough to be viable outside the womb. Sentences have ranged from probation to 20 years in prison. Women sent to prison after pregnancy loss are among the few Americans serving time for drug consumption; most laws criminalize drug possession and sales, not use.

While the repercussions of Dobbs are still unfolding, it gives states leeway to expand child endangerment and homicide laws to punish people for what happens during their pregnancies. At least nine states now have fetal personhood laws on the books. Some, like Georgia, had “trigger” laws that took effect once Roe was overturned.

Another issue that we touched on briefly had to do with mass sterilization of Native American women (and Black and Hispanic women) who were involuntarily and permanently sterilized.  This actually occurred in the 1970s, and was as a result of a certain law that had passed.  According to an article on Time.com regarding this subject:

Advertisement

Over the six-year period that had followed the passage of the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970, physicians sterilized perhaps 25% of Native American women of childbearing age, and there is evidence suggesting that the numbers were actually even higher. Some of these procedures were performed under pressure or duress, or without the women’s knowledge or understanding. The law subsidized sterilizations for patients who received their health care through the Indian Health Service and for Medicaid patients, and black and Latina women were also targets of coercive sterilization in these years.

But while Sanchez and the Native women with whom she organized responded to the results of that 1970 law, they also recognized that the fight against involuntary sterilization was one of many intertwined injustices rooted—as was their resistance—in a much longer history of U.S. colonialism. And that history continues to this day.

On top of all of these issues related to stripping women who have not borne children of their rights, including the right to vote, much of the uncomfortable history of American colonialism is also being quietly erased.  This includes the removal from National Parks of plaques and other descriptions of lesser-known occurrences in history that are being intentionally removed from the public’s memory.  But it isn’t limited to just these symbols.  According to the Center for American Progress:

Through a multipronged strategy that includes purging diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, pushing for changes in school curricula, and censoring museum exhibits, the administration has implemented a series of orders to reduce access to public areas and censor and rewrite historical exhibits, particularly those targeting the history and impact of Black Americans on public lands. For example, the rollback of fee‑free days on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, when parks are free to the public, symbolically limits public access to history and weakens the government’s own acknowledgment that these lands—and the narratives they hold—belong to all Americans. The Trump administration’s Orwellian executive order to restore “truth and sanity” to American history flattens slavery into blameless abstraction, detaches the Civil Rights Movement from the forces that made it necessary, and isolates Black achievement from the context that gives it meaning. By erasing Black history from public lands, the administration diminishes the national heritage all Americans are meant to share and disparages the contributions of Black Americans.

We talked briefly about another College of Staten Island retired professor, Richard Schwartz, whose book Mathematics and Global Survival discusses the environmental costs of the falling birth rate as well as ethical eating decisions, where eating meat is extremely destructive to the environment.

We went into great depth on  a variety of issues related to the topic of Pronatalism, which is defined as the promotion of having children (by White women).   This social pressure can lead to isolation, and we also talked about message boards and online communities of such women without children, and how this can help women to know that they are not alone.  It was an interesting conversation about a topic that is very timely, with Project 2025 and the outlawing of abortion in over 27 states, and not just abortion, but miscarriages also.  This is being discussed in the larger society with great vigor in the political climate of today, and this interview and book provide a different perspective on the whole matter.

Banner Image: Pronatalism book.  Image Credit – Staten Islander News