A feminist exploration of ‘populationism’: engaging contemporary forms of population control

Bhatia, Rajani; Sasser, Jade S.; Ojeda, Diana; Hendrixson, Anne; Nadimpally, Sarojini; Foley, Ellen

doi:10.1080/0966369x.2018.1553859

Cited by 59 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…At the same time, privatized approaches to reproductive health amplify broader inequalities in access to resources according to age, gender, geography, and race. Neoliberal discourses of empowerment and self-actualization through rational consumption of health services or goods such as family planning or facility-based delivery obscure the gendered and racialized anti-natalism of twenty-first century approaches to maternal and reproductive health (Bhatia et al, 2019;MacDonald, 2019). While the presence of misoprostol in pharmacies and hospitals increases access to safe reproductive health care for those who can afford the drug, it also abandons the most vulnerable women to cope with discriminatory abortion laws and under-resourced public health systems while aspiring to responsible reproductive behavior.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although FP 2020 uses the language of reproductive rights and maternal mortality reduction to frame contraceptive use, it reanimates neo-Malthusian logics of population control that posit fertility in SSA as a threat to the economic, political, and environmental stability-"the abundant life" (Murphy, 2017)of wealthy countries in the global North (Hartmann, 2014;Bhatia et al, 2019). Such initiatives prioritize a technical solution-contraception-to complex social, political, and economic problems such as food insecurity, land dispossession, and disinvestment in subsistence agriculture (much of which is performed by women in SSA [Rodgers and Akram-Lodhi, 2019]).…”

Section: Theoretical Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

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A Stalled Revolution? Misoprostol and the Pharmaceuticalization of Reproductive Health in Francophone Africa

Suh

2021

Front. Sociol.

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Misoprostol entered the global market under the name Cytotec in the mid-1980s for the treatment of gastric ulcers. Decades of research have since demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of off-label use of misoprostol as a uterotonic in pregnant women to prevent and treat post-partum hemorrhage, treat incomplete abortion, or terminate first-trimester pregnancy. Global health experts emphasize misoprostol’s potential to revolutionize access to reproductive health care in developing countries. Misoprostol does not require refrigeration, can be self-administered or with the aid of a non-physician, and is relatively inexpensive. It holds particular promise for improving reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa, where most global maternal mortality related to post-partum hemorrhage and unsafe abortion occurs. Although misoprostol has been widely recognized as an essential obstetric medication, its application remains highly contested precisely because it disrupts medical and legal authority over pregnancy, delivery, and abortion. I draw on fieldwork in Francophone Africa to explore how global health organizations have negotiated misoprostol’s abortifacient qualities in their reproductive health work. I focus on this region not only because it has some of the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality, but also fertility, thereby situating misoprostol in a longer history of family planning programs in a region designated as a zone of overpopulation since the 1980s. Findings suggest that stakeholders adopt strategies that directly address safe abortion on the one hand, and integrate misoprostol into existing clinical protocols and pharmaceutical supply systems for legal obstetric indications on the other. Although misoprostol has generated important partnerships among regional stakeholders invested in reducing fertility and maternal mortality, the stigma of abortion stalls its integration into routine obstetric care and availability to the public. I demonstrate the promises and pitfalls of pharmaceuticalizing reproductive health: despite the availability of misoprostol in some health facilities and pharmacies, low-income and rural women continue to lack access not only to the drug, but to quality reproductive health care more generally.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

A Stalled Revolution? Misoprostol and the Pharmaceuticalization of Reproductive Health in Francophone Africa

Suh

2021

Front. Sociol.

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“…In addition, women’s ongoing demands for reproductive health care and their reproductive well-being are heavily dependent on the availability and accessibility of health care systems. 34 Subsequently, reproductive rights knowledge is likely to be correlated with utilization of health care. We hypothesized that both utilization of health care and reproductive rights knowledge are likely to have significant effects on contraceptive use.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive Rights Knowledge, Health Care Utilization, and Contraceptive Use in Pakistan: A Reproductive Rights Perspective

Saeed¹,

Pillai²,

Gouher³

2021

OAJC

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Introduction This study investigates the effects of utilization of health care and the level of reproductive rights knowledge on contraceptive use. Current family planning programs in developing countries utilize a two-pronged strategy involving improvement of level of reproductive rights and, right to access health care systems. The effectiveness of this strategy in developing countries such as Pakistan remains poorly investigated. This study aimed at examining the effect of reproductive rights knowledge on contraceptive use. Methods The target population is educated, 18- to 45-year-old married Pakistani women. The sample is composed of 160 nonrandomly selected purposive group of women. We gathered data using a structured questionnaire and analyzed the data using several multivariate methods such as latent class analysis and multiple classification analysis. Results Our results suggest that reproductive rights knowledge has no direct effect on contraceptive use. Furthermore, the level of utilization of the health care system plays a significant intervening role between reproductive rights knowledge and contraceptive use. Discussion Our results call for improving access and availability of health care while strengthening the awareness and knowledge of reproductive rights among women to improve their capacity to utilize family planning methods. Public awareness and educational programs are indeed necessary to promote knowledge of reproductive rights among women in developing countries. As public health campaigns propagandize the crucial role reproductive rights play in improving women’s reproductive health, it is important to maintain a structurally harmonious relationship between health care systems and family planning programs promoting contraceptive use. This approach is more likely to result in significant returns for public awareness campaigns promoting reproductive rights in developing countries.

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“…The second phase, from the late 1990s onwards, captured accounts of the diverse forms assisted reproductive technologies take in a range of settings, such as India (Bharadwaj 2006 ) and Egypt, though often among elites. We suggest that more recently there has been a focus on reflecting the experiences of more marginalised populations, captured in the work of Valdez and Deomampo ( 2019 ) (see also, for example, Bell 2014 ; Murphy 2017 ; Rudrappa 2015 ; Bhatia et al 2019 ; Davis 2019 ; Blell 2017 ).…”

Section: Studies Of Reproductive Technologies In the Social Sciencesmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…We offer this article as a complement to a wider set of reflections in the burgeoning field of studies of reproductive technologies which are aimed at addressing forms of exclusion, discrimination and stratification that are perpetuated in both the application of RTs and the ways in which they are studied (Bell 2014 ; Rudrappa 2015 ; Valdez and Deomampo 2019 , Bhatia et al 2019 , Davis 2019 ; Benjamin 2019 ; Bridges 2011 ; Roberts 2017 ). We agree with Ginsburg and Rapp’s ( 1995 ) foundational argument about moving reproduction to the centre of social theory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adjusting the analytical aperture: propositions for an integrated approach to the social study of reproductive technologies

Boydell

Dow

2021

BioSocieties

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The ever-expanding availability of reproductive technologies, the continued roll-out of ‘family planning’ and maternity services across low- and middle-income settings and the rapid development of the fertility industry mean that it is more likely than ever that individuals, especially women and gender non-conforming people, will engage with more than one RT at some point in their life. These multiple engagements with RTs will affect users’ expectations and uptake, as well as the technologies’ availability, commercial success, ethical status and social meanings. We argue that an integrated approach to the study of RTs and their users not only makes for better research, but also more politically conscious research, which questions some of the ideological precepts that have led to reproduction being parcelled out into biomedical specialisations and a disproportionate focus on particular forms of reproduction in particular disciplines within public health and social science research. We offer this article as part of a wider movement in the study of reproduction and reproductive technologies, which takes inspiration from the reproductive justice framework to address forms of exclusion, discrimination and stratification that are perpetuated in the development and application of reproductive technologies and the ways in which they are studied and theorised.

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A feminist exploration of ‘populationism’: engaging contemporary forms of population control

Cited by 59 publications

References 39 publications

A Stalled Revolution? Misoprostol and the Pharmaceuticalization of Reproductive Health in Francophone Africa

A Stalled Revolution? Misoprostol and the Pharmaceuticalization of Reproductive Health in Francophone Africa

Reproductive Rights Knowledge, Health Care Utilization, and Contraceptive Use in Pakistan: A Reproductive Rights Perspective

Adjusting the analytical aperture: propositions for an integrated approach to the social study of reproductive technologies

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