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This book is a critical analysis of the technologies of identity-formation in governmental family planning policy. Panu argues that in order for contemporary liberalism to govern legitimately, governmental discourses have to create and subsequently alienate certain identities as “other” that is, as the polar opposite of the good, normal citizen. These identities usually center on the poor, the racialised, and the gendered. These arguably discriminatory practices are illustrated through the investigation of the U.S. bio- and anatomo-politics of reproduction in the national family planning strategy, in an analytical framework that relates them to the welfare benefit policies in the same country. Panu argues that as long as neo-liberal governmental apparatuses map and rule society using this combination of “othering” and foundational assumptions, each governmental intervention reinforces the systems that make domination, inequality, and exclusion possible.
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Contextualizing Family Planning This page intentionally left blank Contextualizing Family Planning Truth, Subject, and the Other in the U.S. Government Mihnea Panu CONTEXTUALIZING FAMILY PLANNING Copyright © Mihnea Panu, 2009. All rights reserved. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–0–230–60798–9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Panu, Mihnea. Contextualizing family planning: truth, subject, and the other in the US government / by Mihnea Panu. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–230–60798–5 1. Birth control—Political aspects—United States. 2. Human reproduction—Political aspects—United States. 3. Welfare recipients— United States. 4. Liberalism—United States. 5. United States— Politics and government. I. Title. HQ766.5.U5P36 2009 363.9'60973—dc22 2009013910 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: September 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. CON T E N T S Acknowledgments One vii Government, Truth, and Subjectivity in a “Post-substance” Reality 1 Two The Other in Liberal Governmentality 29 Three Governing the Nation’s Reproduction: Race as Pathology 55 Governing the Nation’s Reproduction: Culture, Poverty, and Eugenics 87 Patriarchal Orders of Reality in the Apparatuses of Sexuality Regulation 121 Strategies of Truth and the Formation of Governmental Reality 151 Liberal Governing and the Contemporary Political Imagination 187 Four Five Six Seven Appendix 1 List of U.S. Policy Documents Consulted 217 Appendix 2 Questions Used to Assess Pregnancy Intentions in Major U.S. Surveys 221 Appendix 3 Measures That Predict Nonmarital First Pregnany and Abortion 223 Notes 225 Bibliography 233 Index 241 This page intentionally left blank AC K NOW L E DGM E N T S It is impossible to express in this space the extent to whic