A Likely Past: Abortion, Social Data, and a Collective Memory of Secrets in 1950s America.

This essay analyzes the collective mnemonics embedded in the statistical discourse of Planned Parenthood's 1955 conference, Abortion in the United States. Conferees recalled a culture that was diseased, remembered both through social data on abortion pathology and epidemiology. The essay conceptualizes how to think of social data as a collective memory of secrets that is incumbent to biopower, particularly regarding statistical anonymity as a form of strategic amnesia. Although primarily a study of this conference, the essay notes the broader importance of collective memory and secrecy for the study of biopower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]