{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T13:33:13Z","timestamp":1785418393285,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":70,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,18]],"date-time":"2025-07-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1752796800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":17,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med. Hist."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Surgical sterilisation practices significantly increased in contraceptive capacity as the twentieth century unfolded. Despite this prolific uptake, sterilisation is markedly absent from histories of birth control and family planning and instead has remained addressed within histories of eugenics and coercion. The purpose of this article is twofold: firstly, to demonstrate a voluntary, contraceptive history of sterilisation that is distinct from, though connected to, involuntary and eugenic sterilisation; and secondly, to explain the integral role that individual doctors and their private practice played in the rise of contraceptive sterilisation in twentieth-century Australia. Through a combination of archival material and oral history interviews with twentieth-century practitioners of tubal ligation and vasectomy, this article reframes the history of surgical sterilisation, situating it firmly within the history of birth control.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/mdh.2025.10015","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,18]],"date-time":"2025-07-18T05:44:21Z","timestamp":1752817461000},"page":"510-527","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Contraceptive sterilisation: private practice, tubal ligation and vasectomy in twentieth-century Australia"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"69","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7822-208X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tiarne","family":"Barratt-Young","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03r8z3t63","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of New South Wales"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1703-5843","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alison","family":"Bashford","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03r8z3t63","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of New South Wales"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref34","first-page":"1","volume-title":"The History and Purposes of Private Health Insurance","author":"Duckett","year":"2019"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref36","first-page":"5","volume-title":"Eugenics Society of Victoria","author":"Booth","year":"1938"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref12","volume-title":"The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics","author":"Garton","year":"2010"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref28","first-page":"121","volume-title":"Contraception, Healthy Choices: A Contraceptive Clinic in a Book","year":"2009"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/09584935.2017.1292212"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"194","DOI":"10.1080\/13625187.2018.1458227","article-title":"Legalised Non-Consensual Sterilisation - Eugenics put into Practice Before 1945, and the Aftermath. Part 2: Europe","volume":"23","author":"Jean-Jacques","year":"2018","journal-title":"European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/007327530103900303"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1590\/s0104-59702016000500011"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.2.3216.328"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref32","first-page":"40","volume-title":"Vasectomy, Manhood, and Sex","author":"Kasirsky","year":"1972"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref64","volume-title":"Reproductive Health in India: History, Politics, and Controversies","author":"Hodges","year":"2006"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/10383441.2016.1179838"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9781139507554.002"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref67","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0021911813002350"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/mdh.2020.2"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref37","first-page":"23","volume-title":"Madness in Australia: Histories, Heritage and the Asylum","author":"Finnane","year":"2003"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctt5hjdm1"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref15","volume-title":"Eugenics at the Edges of Empire","author":"Garton","year":"2018"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref10","first-page":"422","article-title":"The Voluntary Sterilization Campaign in Britain, 1918-39","volume":"2","author":"Macnicol","year":"1992","journal-title":"Journal of the History of Sexuality"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/maq.12014"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref43","volume-title":"The Male Pill: A Biography of a Technology in the Making","author":"Oudhoorn","year":"2003"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1744629517747162"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511997075"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref69","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1728-4457.2006.00145.x"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780198206927.001.0001"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref68","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/9781107705647.045"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref48","first-page":"37","volume-title":"Law and Social Welfare","author":"Buddin","year":"1976"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/book.468"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/pbm.1994.0024"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref58","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/09612025.2013.780843"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref2","volume-title":"Let\u2019s Talk About Sex: Histories of Sexuality in Australia from Federation to the Pill","author":"Featherstone","year":"2011"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jhmas\/jrx044"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref46","first-page":"99","article-title":"A Report on Voluntary Sterilization with Special Reference to Minors and Women who are Intellectually Disabled","volume":"3","author":"Vick","year":"1985","journal-title":"Clinical Reproductive Fertility"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/10383441.2016.1179838"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref29","first-page":"16","volume-title":"Female Sterilisation: A Guide to Provision of Services","year":"1992"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref41","first-page":"148","volume-title":"A World of Populations: The Production, Transfer, and Application of Demographic Knowledge in the Twentieth Century in Transnational Perspective","author":"Olszynko-Gryn","year":"2014"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref63","volume-title":"Contraception, Colonialism and Commerce: Birth Control in South India, 1920-1940","author":"Hodges","year":"2008"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref56","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/shm\/hkx005"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref61","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226821528.001.0001"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/medlaw\/1.2.139"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref65","volume-title":"From Population Control to Reproductive Health: Malthusian Arithmetic","author":"Rao","year":"2004"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"121","DOI":"10.1080\/13625187.2018.1450973","article-title":"Legalised Non-Consensual Sterilisation - Eugenics Put into Practice Before 1945, and the Aftermath. Part 1: USA, Japan, Canada and Mexico","volume":"23","author":"Jean-Jacques","year":"2018","journal-title":"European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref60","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/01440365.2011.627154"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref24","volume-title":"Rejuvenation: The Work of Steinach, Voronoff, and Others","author":"Haire","year":"1924"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref70","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.841329"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref27","first-page":"48","volume-title":"Some More Medical Views on Birth Control","author":"Haire","year":"1928"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref38","first-page":"17","volume-title":"Report on Mental Deficiency in the Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Health","volume":"3","author":"Jones","year":"1929"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref59","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/10314619708596049"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref62","volume-title":"Reproductive Restraints: Birth Control in India, 1877-1947","author":"Ahluwalia","year":"2008"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref1","volume-title":"The Sex Lives of Australians: A History","author":"Bongiorno","year":"2012"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref55","first-page":"118","volume-title":"The Disenchantment of the Home: Modernizing the Australian Family 1880-1940","author":"Reiger","year":"1985"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5694\/j.1326-5377.1974.tb70707.x"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/sex.2004.0037"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref57","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780199267361.001.0001"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref35","first-page":"7","volume-title":"The Eugenics Society of Victoria","author":"Agar","year":"1939"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref18","volume-title":"Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health Welfare","author":"Schoen","year":"2005"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref53","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2190\/PCPL-8XA9-WKXU-D1A3"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/10314619908596105"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref66","volume-title":"Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi","author":"Tarlo","year":"2003"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780195188585.001.0001"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref9","volume-title":"Breeding Contempt: The History of Coerced Sterilization in the United States","author":"Largent","year":"2008"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref47","first-page":"28","volume-title":"Family Planning and the Law in Australia: Part A, Primary Family Planning Legislation","author":"Finlay","year":"1973"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1089\/gyn.2021.0101"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/hah.2011.0023"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref49","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/laws6030008"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0002-9378(94)70306-X"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"212","DOI":"10.5694\/j.1326-5377.1973.tb119726.x","article-title":"Vasectomy","volume":"1","author":"Wallace","year":"1973","journal-title":"Medical Journal of Australia"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctv1rm256s"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref40","first-page":"214","volume-title":"Women Healers and Physicians: Climbing a Long Hill","author":"Bashford","year":"1997"},{"key":"S002572732510015X_ref44","first-page":"125","volume-title":"Australian Feminism: A Companion","author":"Schofield","year":"1998"}],"container-title":["Medical History"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S002572732510015X","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,1]],"date-time":"2025-12-01T01:19:33Z","timestamp":1764551973000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S002572732510015X\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,7]]},"references-count":70,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,7]]}},"alternative-id":["S002572732510015X"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/mdh.2025.10015","relation":{},"ISSN":["0025-7273","2048-8343"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0025-7273","type":"print"},{"value":"2048-8343","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,7]]},"assertion":[{"value":"\u00a9 The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.","name":"license","label":"License","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This content has been made available to all.","name":"free","label":"Free to read"}]}}