Reproductive Rights and Justice

Reproductive Rights and Justice explores the economic, political, legal, and social factors that influence procreation and parenting. It is attentive to questions of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and ability. The course will address the interests of various stakeholders in human reproduction, connecting those interests to contemporary and historical policies such as pro-natalism, population control, individual autonomy, and what is sometimes identified as respect for human life. While our focus will be primarily on the United States, we will also look at comparative regulatory and constitutional systems with regard to particular topics, including issues ranging from contraception to surrogacy to abortion to assisted reproductive technology. Other specific topics include privacy and reproductive rights, pregnancy loss (miscarriage and abortion), and constitutional, biological, economic, and cultural limitations on various rights and practices. These explorations reveal how the regulation of reproduction cuts across existing legal doctrines in family law, health law, criminal law, disability rights and other areas.