Reproductive justice – from feminist postulate to scientific concept Cover Image

Sprawiedliwość reprodukcyjna - od feministycznego postulatu do naukowej koncepcji
Reproductive justice – from feminist postulate to scientific concept

Author(s): Krystyna Dzwonkowska-Godula
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Civil Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Health and medicine and law, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Ośrodek Badań Filozoficznych
Keywords: reproductive justice; reproductive rights; procreative autonomy; social inequality; intersectionality;

Summary/Abstract: In the 1990s, a group of feminists of colour in the United States, recognising that the actions taken so far to promote women's rights represented the interests of white rich middle-class Americans, proposed a concept of “reproductive justice” and fought for the reproductive rights of marginalized social groups (including women from ethnic minorities, women with low social status and transgender people). This concept was created by combining the idea of reproductive rights with social justice. It advocates equality and the abolition of divisions between the privileged and the disadvantaged in deciding about their own bodies, procreation and family life. “Reproductive justice” means the right and conditions to have children or not, control over the conditions of childbirth, as well as parenting children in safe and sustainable communities. The aim of the article is to consider how the concept of reproductive justice can be applied in the scientific description and study of social reality. It seems that several different dimensions of its scientific ”usefulness” can be discussed. Firstly, the article points to reproductive rights as significant for the social status of individuals. It raises questions of what reproductive rights are granted and to whom and what social consequences derive from their possession/non-possession for individuals and entire social categories. Secondly, as an intersectional approach, it inspires the analysis of social inequalities and discriminatory practices in the field of reproductive rights in order to study the impact of different social characteristics of individuals on their access to these rights. Thirdly, this concept encourages research into the relationship between experiences of individuals, their social affiliation, the macro-social context and issues of subjectivity and agency in the area of reproduction. Fourthly, by pointing to the problem of privilege and discrimination in the field of reproduction, the concept inspires us to ask questions about who, why and how creates these social divisions and who benefs from reproductive injustice.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 1-13
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish