In the Name of Protecting Life: The Necropolitics of US Reproductive Healthcare

• In Event: 40461 - Section on Sociology of Law Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Medical Ethics and Law

Abstract

Current US politics around reproductive healthcare, both federally and at the state level, have become center stage for discussion of biopower, in particular, Necropolitics. With a continuous flow of new legislation each week, it is evident there is an explicit attack on bodily autonomy of reproductive bodies, but is ultimately leading to death instead of preserving and protecting life. Necropolitics provides a unique framework to better understand the prioritizing of one form of life over another, and in the case of US reproductive politics, is resulting in collateral damage and general increase in maternal mortality. The ambiguity of these laws (some of which are not yet passed, but still be treated as current legal standard by some) are putting healthcare practitioners in compromising legal situations in providing adequate healthcare. With so many laws extensively restricting abortion care, it has also produced a blurred line in addressing pregnancy complications and miscarriage care. Conservative politicians are advocating for multiple bills through a multipronged biopolitical strategy to regulate reproductive life in attacking reproductive healthcare at various levels. The collective implications of said bills present a larger-scale Necropolitics agenda with a legal war on women, gender-queer folks, and numerous marginalized communities impacted. I argue through legislative analysis, that the Necropolitics of current and impending legislation is acting in conflict to what many of the bills' language claims: protecting life. This paper aims to bring forth perspectives on access to adequate healthcare, the bodily autonomy of people, and the stress on the medical infrastructure across the US related to reproductive healthcare.

Author

• Lauren M. Fishel, University of Oklahoma