S18. COMMITTED ANTHROPOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION: THINKING ABOUT RIGHTS, HEALTH, AND POLICIES THROUGH THE REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE LENS

S18 COMMITTED ANTHROPOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION: THINKING ABOUT RIGHTS, HEALTH, AND POLICIES THROUGH THE REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE LENS

Coordinación:
Joanna Mishtal
jom924@lehigh.edu

Silvia De Zordo (UB)
silviadezordo@ub.edu

This symposium panel aims to bring to the forefront anthropological analyses that examine contemporary struggles around achieving reproductive justice, namely the ability of women and pregnancy-capable people to maintain reproductive self-determination broadly defined as the ability to decide to have or not have children, to live in safe and sustainable communities, and to have access to livable employment and housing. Specifically, building on this year’s theme of committed anthropology which encourages us to challenge the growing political and social polarization, this panel aims to think about reproduction through the holistic and inclusive lens of justice.

Reproductive and sexual health issues such as abortion, contraception, sex education, and gender-affirming care, including the very notion of gender, are at the forefront of on-going political struggles in many parts of the world, including Latin America, Europe and the United States. Restrictions on reproductive rights have been used as political instruments in the agendas of right-wing populist regimes, neoliberal schemes, pronatalist and nationalist agendas, and religious conservative powers. Non-legislative struggles have included promotion of conscientious objection in sexual and reproductive care services and misinformation campaigns. These struggles play out in local country or region settings, as well as at the transnational level of activism to impede the advances in sexual and reproductive rights and health services, or conversely to support women and pregnant people in, for example, seeking abortion care across national and international borders, or via telehealth.

In this panel, thinking from the perspective of reproductive justice, we invite paper proposals that explore reproduction and family planning from any of the following angles: how women and pregnancy-capable people in a variety of social, geopolitical and legal contexts (more or less restrictive when it comes to reproductive rights) experience and make reproductive decisions in the context of economic realities of neoliberal cuts in social services, low access to affordable state-subsidized childcare, gender and employment inequalities, job insecurity, and inflation. We are interested in paper proposals about the reproductive health and rights experiences of people living in legally restrictive versus more liberal contexts, focusing particularly on those who have precarious income and employment, inadequate housing,  or live in under-resourced communities, and other marginalized groups that are disproportionately affected by restrictive family planning policies or inadequate family supports. We will also welcome proposals investigating the national and transnational support networks that fight for reproductive justice and help these people achieve their reproductive goals, in spite of all the barriers and challenges they experience. As committed and engaged anthropologists, we seek to integrate the anthropological research knowledge with public and political debates and consider the ways in which our findings may be used in sexual and reproductive health and right advocacy campaigns, locally or globally.

Symposium Languages: English, Spanish