Women with Disabilities: Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing ...

WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS TO ACCESSING SERVICES DURING PREGNANCY,CHILDBIRTH AND EARLY MOTHERHOODSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublinunfit’, and their perceived threat to society (Sheerin, 1998a). Indeed, theeugenicists deeply held the belief that ‘all poor, feebleminded women at largebecome mothers of illegitimate (feebleminded) children soon after reaching theage of puberty’ (Neff et al, 1915 cited in Brandon, 1957a:pg. 711), and that themultiplication of the ‘unfit’ threatened humanity with ‘economic and biologicaldisaster’ (Tredgold, 1929 cited in Brandon, 1957a:pg. 711).The focus centred directly on one specific group: poor, intellectually disabledwomen of childbearing age. The responses to this were prophylacticinstitutionalisation - segregating the intellectually disabled women from society -and prophylactic sterilisation - removing from them the possibility of having anyreproductive future (Pfeiffer, 1994). Rafter (1992) argues that the eugenicsmovement in the United States, under the leadership of Josephine Lowell,proceeded to the point of actually criminalising the very fact of being female andintellectually disabled. Scior (2003) suggests that, for these women, gender anddisability became inextricably linked. Whereas the eugenicist perspective maybe considered to be one that pervaded late 19 th and early 20 th century thought,its role in the development of services was so pervasive and important thatmany services and indeed, Western society itself, Sheerin (2006) argues, hasfound it difficult to discard its remnants. According to Stansfield et al (2007) thisis evident in the continuance of segregation and, until recently, even sterilisationof people with intellectual disability in the United Kingdom. Broberg and Roll-Hallson (2005) comment similarly on other countries. Stehlik (2001) argues thatsuch actions are examples of an increasing trend of ‘corporate/neo-eugenics’.2.7.3.3. The presumption of parental inadequacy: protecting the childrenDespite all attempts to remove the procreative capability of women withintellectual disability, it became clear that the eugenic policies were notachieving their aim. This failure is evident in the literature of the mid-20 thcentury, which increasingly focused on the reality that some women withintellectual disabilities, both in institutions and in society, were becomingpregnant and giving birth to children (Hathaway, 1947; Mickelson, 1947, 1949;44