The Imprint Weekly
The Imprint Weekly
The Dark Past of Sterilization and the Bright Future for Birth Justice
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On this week’s episode, The Imprint’s Nancy Marie Spears sits down with reporter Suzette Brewer to discuss her recent two-part series on the tragic past and promising future of birth justice for the Native American community. The series examines the use of sterilization on Indigenous women, a practice many believe was intended to facilitate the dying out of tribes, and the more recent efforts to build a birth justice movement in the Native American community.
Spears and Brewer discussed their reporting careers, covering the Indian Child Welfare Act, and how her recent series came together over the course of a decade.
Suzette Brewer is a journalist specializing in federal Indian law and social justice, with a focus on issues affecting Native women and children. She has reported extensively on the Indian Child Welfare Act, the U.S. Supreme Court, Native voting rights, environmental justice in Indian Country, and the opioid crisis.
Brewer is a recipient of the Richard LaCourse–Gannett Foundation Al Neuharth Investigative Journalism Award, a John Jay/Tow Juvenile Justice Reporting Fellow, and a 2024 National Fellow with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. She is a member of the Cherokee Nation and is from Stilwell, Oklahoma.
Episode Timeline
0:00-9:10: Reporting on the Indigenous community
9:11-18:00: Covering the Indian Child Welfare Act
18:01-1:02: Suzette Brewer's two-part series on the history of forced sterilization and the future of birth justice in the Indigenous community
Reading Room
For Centuries, Native Women Have Been Told to ‘Trust the Doctor.’ The Results Have Been Disastrous.
Birth Justice: The Fight for Reproductive Freedom in Indian Country
Reporting by Nancy Marie Spears
https://imprintnews.org/author/nancy-marie-spears