Is there a Right to Assisted Procreation? A Reproductive Justice Approach

This essay uses the lens of reproductive justice theory to ask whether the right to procreate should extend to the right to use assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in pursuit of procreation – particularly in the historical and contemporary contexts of the United States. I begin with a brief gloss of different legal bases of a right to procreate in general, including human-rights bases not commonly used in the US. I then review four primarily rights-based arguments for expanding ART access within different regulatory scenarios, contrasting US approaches with those of other contexts. In the third section, drawing on the work of Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, I present my justice-based argument for expanding ART access in the US as a matter of reparations for reproductive injustices faced by marginalized communities. Finally, I consider the question of whether LGBTQ+ would-be parents also have justice (as opposed to rights-based) claims to ART access.