No Más Bebés Film Screening and Panel Discussion

Amado Recital Room in the Irvine Auditorium • Friday, April 5, 2019 • 2:30 -4PM

No más bebés is a documentary film that tells the story of Mexican immigrant mothers who were sterilized while giving birth at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a part of Health Equity Week at Penn Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania, we will be screening No Más Bebés in partnership with the student group StORM (Students Opposing Racism in Medicine). Following the screening, we will host a panel discussion to critically assess how the story conveyed in No Más Bebés parallels that of the historical, reproductive oppression of women of color in the United States. Understanding that a discussion of reproductive politics in the U.S. necessitates a discussion of racial politics, our goal is to provide a forum for group critical thought regarding how the construction of race as a “biological” concept has been used to justify the policing of reproduction since race was defined as a “heritable” trait.

Importantly, during the panel discussion, we plan to partner with community organizations to highlight women of color leading reproductive justice efforts in our Philadelphia community and beyond. In lieu of reproductive injustices faced by highly publicized women of color such as tennis champion Serena Williams, this discussion is especially pertinent given published findings detailing the significantly higher rates of pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality faced by black mothers in Philadelphia.

To register for this event and other Health Equity Week events, please click here.