Housing Policy and Reproductive Justice in the UK

Abstract

Reproductive Justice is an intersectional feminist activist movement and epistemological framework for documenting, understanding, and responding to reproductive oppression. The Reproductive Justice movement asserts that all people have the right to (1) not have a child; (2) have a child; (3) parent children with dignity in safe and healthy environments; and (4) bodily autonomy. As a movement rooted in international human rights, Reproductive Justice has since been applied to understand reproductive oppression in various contexts around the globe. Consistent access to secure, affordable, suitable housing is crucial to the realization of Reproductive Justice. In this paper, we focus on housing in the UK as an example, identifying how policy decisions shape the ability to access adequate housing with consequences for Reproductive Justice, particularly for marginalized people.