Disability Reproductive Justice

This article was written by Robyn M. Powell and published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

Nearly 100 years after the infamous Buck v. Bell decision, people with disabilities continue to endure reproductive oppression. Today, despite the substantial—and increasing—size of the disability community, ‘the sexual and reproductive health needs of this population largely have been ignored.’ Moreover, attitudes and presumptions about people with disabilities’ sexuality and reproduction has been ‘reified in laws, social policies, and public spaces that deny the fact that people with disabilities are sexual beings.’

This article limns the contemporary reproductive experiences of disabled people—including by explaining ever-present threats to parenthood experienced by disabled people at the hands of the child welfare system.