This Article confronts an underexplored area in scholarly literature to demonstrate that the administration of long-acting reversible contraception under conditions of coercion is a form of stratified eugenics that signifies a restriction of reproductive autonomy that is legitimized through the exploitation of a narrative of care. Stratified eugenics is a conceptual framework for understanding the numerous ways that systems of care and carcerality can work to systematically eliminate or limit one’s reproductive capability based on ableist notions of an individual’s value to society. It includes the loss of one’s ability—by coercion, the absence of choice, uninformed consent, or misinformation—to conceive, either permanently or for an extended period of time, through the insertion or implantation of a contraceptive device.
Specifically, this Article examines the architecture of stratified eugenics through three structural systems: medical, bias, racism and the promotion of immediate postpartum LARC; the medical establishment and the State; and jails and the institutionalization of contraceptive access. It explores the historical roots of eugenics and federal population control policies to surface the role of the political economy in viewing LARC as a surefire return of a financial investment while deprioritizing reproductive choice.