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In today''s post-Roe world, U.S. maternal mortality is on the rise and laws regarding contraception, involuntary sterilization, access to reproductive health services, and criminalization of people who are gestating are changing by the minute. Using a reproductive justice framework, Understanding Reproduction in Social Contexts walks students through the social landscape around reproduction through the life course. Chapters by cutting-edge reproductive scholars, practitioners, and advocates address the social control of fertility and pregnancy, the promises and perils of assisted reproductive technologies, experiences of pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, and birth, and how individuals make sense of and respond to the cultural, social, and political forces that condition their reproductive lives. The book takes an intersectional approach and considers how gender, sexuality, fatness, disability, class, race, and immigration status impact both an individual''s health and the healthcare they receive. The inclusion of timely topics such as increased legal limitations on abortion, transpeople and reproduction, and new developments in assisted reproduction and family formation, speaks to the current generation of students. An essential text for undergraduate and graduate courses on families, gender, public health, reproduction, and sexuality.
About the author
Caitlin Killian is professor of sociology at Drew University. She is the author of
Failing Moms: Social Condemnation and Criminalization of Mothers (2023). As a consultant for the United Nations, she developed the module on sexual and reproductive health and rights for UN staff training.
