Surgery and Salvation

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336 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 4 tables

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-7587-9
Published: November 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-7586-2
Published: November 2023
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-7588-6
Published: October 2023

Studies in Social Medicine

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Awards & distinctions

2023 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize (Women & Gender Category)

2024 Best First Book in the History of Religions, American Academy of Religion

2024 Best Book Award, Nineteenth-Century Section, Latin American Studies Association

Judy Ewell Award, Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies

Honorable Mention, 2024 Murdo MacLeod Prize, Latin American and Caribbean Section, Southern Historical Association

Honorable Mention, 2024 Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize, Western Association of Women Historians

Honorable Mention, Thomas McGann Book Prize, Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies

Finalist, 2024 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Historical Studies, American Academy of Religion

A 2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

In this sweeping history of reproductive surgery in Mexico, Elizabeth O'Brien traces the interstices of religion, reproduction, and obstetric racism from the end of the Spanish empire through the post-revolutionary 1930s. Examining medical ideas about operations (including cesarean section, abortion, hysterectomy, and eugenic sterilization), Catholic theology, and notions of modernity and identity, O'Brien argues that present-day claims about fetal personhood are rooted in the use of surgical force against marginalized and racialized women. This history illuminates the theological, patriarchal, and epistemological roots of obstetric violence and racism today.

O'Brien illustrates how ideas about maternal worth and unborn life developed in tandem. Eighteenth-century priests sought to save unborn souls through cesarean section, while nineteenth-century doctors aimed to salvage some unmarried women's social reputations via therapeutic abortion. By the twentieth century, eugenicists wished to regenerate the nation's racial profile, in part by sterilizing women in public clinics. The belief that medical interventions could redeem women, children, and the nation is what O’Brien refers to as "salvation though surgery." As operations acquired racial and religious significances, Indigenous, Afro-Mexican, and mixed-race people's bodies became sites for surgical experimentation. Even during periods of Church-state conflict, O'Brien argues, the religious valences of experimental surgery manifested in embodied expressions of racialized, and often-coercive, medical science.

About the Author

Elizabeth O’Brien is assistant professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles.
For more information about Elizabeth O'Brien, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

“A sophisticated analysis of reproductive surgeries in Mexico . . . grounded in theories of reproductive justice, reproductive governance, and obstetric violence.”—The Lancet

“Well written and coupled with excellent research, this is a great addition to the history of Mexico as well as the history of women, marginalization, and medical history. An excellent book that covers a lot of ground and is relevant in a number of academic settings.”—CHOICE

“O’Brien’s work is thoughtful towards the victims of obstetric and gynecological violence, past and present. This book is an essential addition for readers seeking to understand how a history of religion and politics can lead to coercive medical practices that affect women’s bodies and reproductive liberties.”—Reading Religion

“A compelling contribution to the expanding historical study of reproductive health in the Americas. . . . O’Brien opens up new methods and materials for the global history of reproductive health and elucidates complex metaphysical, medical, and legal debates with a clarity and precision that make this book well suited for undergraduate readers as well.”—Hispanic American Historical Review

"A stunning contribution to the history of gender, medicine, and race in Mexico and beyond. Elizabeth O’Brien has unearthed a wealth of original and exciting material that offers nuanced and compelling insight into the making of modern obstetrics."—Nora Jaffary, author of Reproduction and Its Discontents in Mexico: Childbirth and Contraception in Mexico, 1750–1905

"Exhaustively researched and analytically sharp, Elizabeth O’Brien’s exemplary scholarship demonstrates just how crucial the history of Mexican and Latin American surgical intervention is to our understanding of obstetric and gynecological violence. A brilliant, cogently argued book with immense contemporary relevance."—Karin Rosemblatt, author of The Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910–1950