Pregnant woman versus mosquito: A feminist epidemiology of Zika virus

Abstract

This article investigates the contradictions between public health protocols and infection containment efforts concerning Zika virus and reproductive rights. In El Salvador, for example, women are being advised to avoid pregnancy until 2018, at which time local authorities hope that the virus will be under control. This is not so easy, however, as there is limited access to contraception, abortion is illegal in all instances, and women tend to have little household authority. In this article, I examine the policy, legal, and political contradictions related to the global proliferation of Zika virus in the context of ongoing debates about stratified reproduction. This term conceptualizes the phenomenon that accords different values to reproductive tasks undertaken by women in different socioeconomic, cultural, and national contexts. Whereas reproduction and reproductive autonomy tend to be highly respected and protected for relatively privileged women in the Global North, they tend to be much less so for women of the Global South. Furthermore, the adherence to public and private divisions in both national and transnational contexts segregates reproductive rights from the mainstream of political negotiation and public health intervention, and in doing so frustrates progress toward the realization of global reproductive rights.