Eugenics (good genes) was a movement of racial science, including policies and practices to remove unwanted people from the gene pool. US eugenicists supported forced sterilization efforts which were nationally legalized by the supreme court ruling Buck v. Bell (1927). Buck v. Bell upheld forced sterilization of people deemed "unfit" (e.g., feeble-minded, criminal). While many groups were sterilized, black women were sterilized at three times the rate of White women and 12 times the rate of White men.

Tragically, the US eugenic policies and practices influenced Adolf Hitler and Nazism to annihilate groups they deemed inferior. After WWII, forcible sterilization declined but was still practiced in prisons, immigration detention, and forced birth control through Norplant or prison programs. Norplant was a long-term birth control implant introduced in 1991 and taken off the market in 2002 due to reported health complications. 

Over the twentieth century, politicians and the media have stoked fears about the increase of non-white US residents, the “browning of America,” partly due to the below population replacement birth rate among white people and increases in non-European immigration since the 1960s. There has been a villainization of non-white mothers' reproduction in discussions about welfare queens as well as anchor babies and calls to restrict their reproduction.

President Ronald Reagan popularized the myth of lazy welfare queens. He painted them as lazy and defrauding the American people, including by having more children for more welfare benefits. The welfare queen myth is based on a single case of fraud of women of unclear race, but the welfare queen is visualized and discussed as a Black woman and there have been heavy consequences for families in poverty. Since the welfare queen myth emerged, cash assistance spending has decreased by 78% (1993-2015), and cash assistance participation fell by 60%, resulting in fewer families with children in poverty receiving cash assistance. Rationale for reductions include suspicion of recipients as underserving and ill-served by welfare dependence. These cuts and devaluations of cash assistance ignore cash assistance's critical role in reducing child poverty.

The myth of dependent welfare queens contributed to calls to limit people’s reproduction and led to reproductive oppression, often through welfare policies. For example, welfare discouraged pregnancies for mothers through child caps with penalties (e.g., lose benefits if you have more children) and coerced Norplant as long term birth control or sterilization for welfare benefits.

Since the 1960s, non-European immigration has increased with vocal public concerns about non-European immigrants. Since the 1990s, there has been negative discussion of undocumented women having “anchor babies” and birth tourism to give birth in the US since everyone born in the US becomes a US citizen.

There were calls to end birthright citizenship by former President Trump, which would require an amendment to the constitution. There are policies to restrict the reproduction of immigrants, including restricting access to Medicaid for five years after immigration since Medicaid is crucial in reproductive health access, including prenatal care. The negative discussion of reproduction for immigrant women is similar to that of women receiving welfare, coded as Black.