Reproductive rights
From Free net encyclopedia
Reproductive rights is a political term to refer to women's rights in areas of sexual reproduction, including the rights to reproduce (such as opposition to forced sterilization) as well as rights not to reproduce (such as support for access to birth control and abortion).
The term encompasses the political framing of contraception and abortion as rights, particular to women—as women, exclusively, are the biological vessels of human reproduction. In this context, “reproductive rights” is largely perceived as being synonymous with “pro-choice,” meaning a position that a woman ought to be the decision maker in whether to bring her pregnancy to term. Many "pro-life" advocates claim that the term is simply mincing words—claiming there to be no practical (hence meaningful) difference between the two statements. However, supporters of reproductive rights may consider it misleading to say, in the context of reproduction politics, that a political figure “supports abortion”, when instead that person may simply support a woman's right to choose abortion among other alternatives.
Supporters claim that such principle falls within the context of right to privacy, and freedom from governmental interference—supporting the legalization of abortion rather than endorsing abortion itself. Other reproductive rights advocates favor the term because they embrace a basic human rights moral justification for their position rather than the right to privacy logic of United States Constitutional interpretation.