Reproductive Justice, Bodily Autonomy, and State Violence

Abstract

Media stories have highlighted some devastating consequences of attacks on bodily autonomy (i.e., the fundamental right to make decisions about one's own body without constraints or violence), such as the surging maternal mortality rates among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), a 10-year-old rape victim’s travel out of state for an abortion, families’ exodus from Texas to avoid child maltreatment charges in response to their children’s gender-affirming care, and the dangerous effects of Missouri’s ban of gender-affirming care for children and adults. To successfully fight attacks on bodily autonomy, social workers would benefit from applying an intersectional and rights-based, reproductive justice theoretical framework that blends under-explored theories of state violence: biopolitics, necropolitics, and debility. Our resulting framework elucidates the role white supremacy plays in state violence. After providing the theoretical framework, we connect the framework to the modern political landscape's rapidly spreading efforts to limit the sovereignty of People of Color, women, and transgender and non-binary communities in the latest iterations of state violence. Our article provides a necessary lens to understand and address the complex web of implications that emerge from attacks on bodily autonomy.