Britney Spears’ forced birth control has a long, dark history in the United States | Moira Donegan

The singer is forced to keep an IUD contraceptive device against her will. This recalls the worst abuses against women in the US

On Tuesday, Britney Spears described the nightmarish legal quagmire she's been trapped in before a California court. Speaking publicly for the first time about the conservatorship that was long rumored by fans and media alike to be oppressive, controlling and not in the singer's best interests, Spears described a Kafkaesque situation in which she has been at the mercy of her conservator's whims.

She is not allowed to get her nails done or change the color of her kitchen cabinets; she is not allowed to drive, or to ride in her boyfriend's car. More seriously, she referred repeatedly to being punished" when she refused her conservators' wishes. Under her conservatorship, Spears has been forced to work against her will and was forcibly institutionalized when she refused. She has not been permitted to choose her own lawyers or therapists. Most disturbingly, Spears is not allowed to refuse medications recommended by her conservators, not even the extremely strong psychiatric drug lithium. And though she says she wants to have another child, Spears is not allowed to remove her IUD.