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Introduction
Debates over reproductive rights tend to center on abortion, with the line dividing pro-choice and pro-life creating what often seems to be an impenetrable political barrier between blue and red. In the past several years, high profile abortion bans have further entrenched this popular conception of reproductive rights as a matter of abortion access. However, this conversation’s narrow scope ignores the diverse set of issues and rights that fall within the scope of reproductive decision-making. It additionally overlooks the reproductive issues specific to queer individuals, meaning sexual and gender minorities. These two omissions obscure a potentially transformative path for securing reproductive rights for everyone: queer reproductive justice.
This Article proceeds in three Parts, with each Part taking up a different set of queer reproductive issues to illustrate how LGBTQ rights advocacy may promote reproductive justice writ large. The first examines family formation debates around LGBTQ assisted reproductive technologies and custody of children. These victories provided the factual and legal support for the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decisions, which emphasized equality, dignity, and autonomy principles—that reproductive justice advocates may be able to apply more broadly.
Marie-Amélie George*
*Assistant Professor, Wake Forest University School of Law. Many thanks to Meghan Boone, Allison Tait, Andrew Verstein, and Ron Wright for their helpful feedback on drafts. Hailey Cleek and Olivia Doss provided invaluable research assistance. Thanks also to the staff of the University of Richmond Law Review for their careful editing.