Reproduction policy as life course policy: normative modelling of reproductive life courses in Germany

This paper investigates how familialist repronormativity, pro-natalism and reproductive autonomy feature as normative models for reproductive life courses in Germany’s current landscape of reproduction policies. Life course research has largely overlooked reproduction as a life course sphere, which is subject to state intervention and strong institutionalised normative assumptions about whether, when and how people should procreate. Drawing on policy documents and a new policy database, this paper compares the current state of reproduction policies in five policy fields (sex education, contraception, abortion, medically assisted reproduction and pregnancy care) to ideal-typical normative orientations towards reproductive life courses. The result is a more systematic understanding of the multidimensionality that is inherent to “life course modelling” (Leisering 2003) of the reproductive life sphere.