Reproductive Justice

Every woman in the world has the right to control her own body, plan her family, receive good quality medical care, and give birth to a healthy baby. This book takes a comprehensive look at the status of women's reproductive rights from a transnational, human-rights perspective.

"Reproductive justice" is a relatively new term that underscores the fact that the existence of reproductive rights does not mean that women are able to exercise those rights. For women unable to exercise their rights for any number of reasons-a lack of available services where they live, lack of money or health insurance to pay for services, being forbidden by family members to seek services-the reality is they have no choices to make and possess little if any control over their own bodies, regardless of what the government states their "rights" are.

Reproductive Justice: A Global Concern provides a comprehensive and integrated examination of the status of reproductive rights for the world's women, covering a wide range of reproductive rights issues. Topics include women's rights to determine their own sexuality and choose their own partners, rape, sex trafficking, fertility treatments and other assisted reproductive technologies, contraception and abortion, maternal and infant mortality, postpartum support, and breastfeeding.