Yearning and Refusal

Abstract

Women’s fertility in Africa has been a major concern of demographers, global health organizations, and national governments. Yearning and Refusal sheds light on reproductive health issues that affect many women and couples but are overlooked, underestimated, or hidden: infertility, the challenges of accessing contraception, and abortion. Society often places the blame and responsibility on women to find solutions to infertility, and governments and global health organizations provide minimal support to them. At the same time, other women wish to limit their fertility, at least temporarily, and find themselves negotiating with a wide range of actors and institutions, each with their own assumptions and priorities. More common than publicly recognized, inhospitable medical personnel and social norms limiting access to contraception sometimes leave women with no choice but to induce abortion. The problems faced by those with fertility conditions are particularly profound in the Republic of Niger, where producing children is central to being considered a woman, a wife, and a person. Drawing on rare first-hand observations in health clinics and in-depth interviews with women seeking reproductive health services in Niamey, Yearning and Refusal examines the emotional and social consequences of yearning for children and refusing to bear them and the ways women use their agency to maneuver through a patriarchal medical system and society.