Will Sex and Reproduction Remain Separable in the United States? It’s a Matter of Life and Death

Gender scholars contend that heterosexual intercourse and reproduction were made separable in the second half of the twentieth century through social, legal, and technological developments. Widespread availability of the birth control pill, the legalization of abortion, and the emergence of assisted reproductive technologies alongside powerful social movements for gender, racial, and sexual equality enabled sex without reproduction and reproduction without sex. In this essay, we offer a brief review of this history before contemplating the likely dire future of the relationship between sexuality and reproduction in the coming years, especially given the 2024 American election results and threats to health privacy from new forms of digital surveillance. We discuss the very real possibility that (hetero)sex and reproduction may not remain separable in the United States, a health- and life-threatening situation that would affect people of all gender identities and sexualities.