As access to abortion and contraception are curtailed across much of the U.S., Professor Lina-Maria Murillo explains that today's reproductive rights debates are part of a much longer story. Her research in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands show how race and power have always influenced who can get care and who cannot. She connects how earlier attempts to control women's bodies still shape current laws and discussions, and she shares what history can teach us about defending reproductive freedom now.

For more on this topic: 

• Check out Murillo's book, Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the US-Mexico Borderlands

• Read her perspective in the Washington Post: Before Roe v. Wade, U.S. residents sought safer abortions in Mexico

• Read her SSN brief: Reproductive Freedom along the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands