ABSTRACT
An emerging social theme positions a pregnant woman as antagonist to the fetus if she deviates from medically, socially, or legally sanctioned behavior. This is particularly devastating for low income women and women with stigmatized problems. The Johnson Controls Company, a battery plant, has instituted a policy excluding all fertile women from jobs with lead exposure on the grounds that such exposure would be “fetotoxic” were they ever to become pregnant. In 1987, A.C., a terminally ill young woman, was subjected to a court ordered caesarean section on behalf of her 25-week fetus. Feminist historians of reproductive politics have commented on protective labor legislation designed to protect the “vessels of the race” with the criminalization of contraception and abortion as some of these manifestations. In 1921, the Shepherd Towner Act provided for preventive health care for pregnant women and children and introduced a mechanism for State supervision of poor mothers through the persons of public health nurses.
