Abstract: Reproductive rights are an integral component of human rights, women’s rights, and constitutional promises of dignity, autonomy, and equality. The current paper examines the legal conceptualization of reproductive rights, situating them in larger human rights frameworks, such asthe Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979), and concomitant agreements. By viewing reproductive rights as a continuation of the right to life, freedom, privacy, and autonomy over one’s body, the paper critiques how legal thinking has increasingly accepted reproductive choices as essential to women’s autonomy.The essay further discusses the tensions between state interests and individual liberty in moral, population control, and public health matters.The examination of the law on reproductive rights reveals continued challenges such as patriarchal dominance of women’s bodies, unequal access based on social and economic disparities, and cultural or religious constraints tending to obstruct protection of these rights. The paper also calls into question whether existing legal frameworks appropriately take into account the needs of marginalized groups, such as single women and women with disabilities. Finally, the paper contends that reproductive rights are not only moral or medical concerns but questions about justice and equality of a grand nature. Utilizing human rights discourses, feminist legal theory, and comparative law, the paper emphasizes the need for a rights-discourse based, inclusive, and situation-conscious approach to reproductive freedom.
Keywords: Reproductive Rights, Human Rights, Women’s Rights, Bodily Autonomy, Abortion Rights, Right to Privacy, State Regulations, Reproductive Justice.
- Introduction
The Reproductive rights constitute an essential element of human dignity and body autonomy. It include access to legal and safe abortion, contraception, assisted reproduction, and proper maternal care. In legal scholarship, they are central to feminist law, constitutional law, international human rights law, and bioethics. However, the legal vocabulary surrounding them reveals an ongoing conflict between personal autonomy and counter-claims of state interest, religious morality, and gender equality.Judicial intervention has been instrumental in shaping the contours of reproductive freedom. The development of reproductive rights jurisprudence has proceeded in an uneven manner across jurisdictions, premised on divergent socio-cultural, political, and religious environments. Illustrative cases include the course of abortion rights in the United States both their entrenchment in Roe v. Wade (1973) and their erosion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)—and the Indian Supreme Court’s acknowledgment of reproductive autonomy under Article 21 of the Constitution in Suchita Srivastava v. Chandigarh Administration (2009).This question seeks to examine the jurisprudential underpinnings of reproductive rights through an analysis of how legal systems think about, safeguard, or limit them. It will evaluate how international human rights paradigms inform local legal constructions, the gendered aspects of judicial judgment, and the impact of milestone cases in establishing reproductive autonomy. The ultimate issue is whether reproductive rights are reaffirmed as inherent human rights or remain subject to judicial and legislative discretion.