Jessi McNeill

With vulnerability as the gauge, this dissertation project will trace and locate Black conservative politics of the United States and the ways it hinges upon Black reproduction. For conservative and Right-wing groups, reproduction is the battleground on which concerns about family, society, and the future are fought. In the context of this research, I explore the Black conservative evocation and function of vulnerability as a political tool utilized within the arena of reproduction. My project examines the ways Black, politically conservative anti-abortion groups construct and utilize the concept of vulnerability in their advocacy work with Black women. The following questions guide my inquiry: How do Black women navigate their participation in anti-abortion politics? What roles do race and racialization play in expressions of Black women’s vulnerability in anti-abortion politics? What can we learn about the movement and the wider history of reactionary politics in the United States by examining their experiences? This interrogation into the ways Black anti-abortion groups construct Black women’s vulnerability will reveal the ways in which conservative and right-wing authority restricts and engenders reproductive violence.