US history is full of laws that took bodily autonomy from people based on race, disability and gender. Enslaved Black people had no legal control over their bodies. In Buck v. Bell in 1927, the Supreme Court upheld forced sterilization of people labeled "unfit," and tens of thousands of people were sterilized under state laws, with Black, Latina, Native and disabled women targeted heavily.
The Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973, then overturned it in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022. Since then, many states have banned abortion and gender-affirming care for minors.
Reproductive justice, a framework created by Black women in 1994, defines bodily autonomy broadly: the right to have children, not to have children and to raise them in safe communities. Bodily autonomy also includes the right to refuse medical procedures and to be free from sexual violence.