Title I: Stratified Reproduction in the U.S.: Racial and Sexual Minority Issues
Bernadette V. Blanchfield, Ph.D. Pre-Candidate, Developmental Psychology, University of Virginia
Additional author: Charlotte J. Patterson, Professor of Psychology, Director, Women Gender & Sexuality Program
This talk presents two studies that compared rates at which women in the U.S. reported receiving medical help to become pregnant as a function of race and sexual orientation, using data from two cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth (2002 wave in Study 1; 2006-2010 wave in Study 2). Working within a framework of stratified reproduction, we investigated how income and insurance coverage disparities mediated differences in receipt of fertility assistance between groups. In both studies, heterosexual White women reported receiving assistance at double the rates of women who identified as non-White, sexual minority (i.e., lesbian or bisexual), or both. Insurance and income discrepancies accounted for all differences between sexual minority and heterosexual women’s receipt of pregnancy help in Study 1, but insurance coverage alone explained differences in Study 2. Mediation analyses indicated income and insurance coverage only partially explained differences between White and non-White groups. Although socioeconomic factors did not explain all differences based on racial group membership, the results indicate that lack of insurance coverage seems to limit access to reproductive healthcare among sexual minority women. Implications of these disparities are discussed.
Title II: “It’s not fair, but that’s the way the world works”: Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) for BRCA and Healthcare Neoliberalisms
Emily Breitkopf, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate, New School for Social Research
Additional authors:
Richard Knight, MA Candidate, New School for Social Research
Individuals with hereditary cancer risk due to a BRCA-mutation have a 50% chance that BRCA-related risk will be transmitted to their children. Reproductive concerns are often prominent among BRCA-mutation carriers. Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is a controversial ART that enables couples to select preferred embryos. In the U.S., PGD for BRCA is an available, albeit expensive, option for individuals/couples who can afford its use. This paper presents results from a qualitative study of 39 (x-female, X-male) reproductive-age BRCA-mutation carriers, highlighting participants’ attitudes and concerns about access to PGD for BRCA. Participants were predominantly White, affluent, and heterosexual. Analyzed through a post-structuralist discourse-analytic framework, we examine the discursive dilemmas participants face as they consider systems of stratification that make PGD available to some and not others. We trace converging discourses throughout the analysis and consider the implications of PGD within the U.S. neoliberal health-care context.
Title III: Reproductive Hierarchies: Transnational Reproduction and the Reification of Colonial Spaces
Presenter:
Professor Michele Goodwin, Chancellor's Chair
University of California, Irvine School of Law
Race exploitation and poverty are key, tolerated components of assisted reproductive technology (ART) domestically and abroad. According to a study conducted by the Center for Social Research in India, “[a]dvances in assisted reproductive techniques such as donor insemination and, embryo transfer methods, have revolutionized the reproductive environment, resulting in ‘surrogacy’, as the most desirable option.” Scholars and policy makers frequently observe that “[t]he system of surrogacy has given hope to many infertile couples, who long to have a child of their own” and has expanded reproductive options for gay men, lesbian women, and single persons intending to parent. However, the attention to the advancements in reproductive technologies and the communities they benefit may obscure externalities worth studying. Desperately missing from ART scholarship are more nuanced analytics that feature race and sex in international surrogacy, particularly its commodification of racialized bodies. This project takes up that issue.
Restorative Justice is quickly emerging as a desired set of principles and practices to mediate conflict, strengthen community, and repair harm in multiple contexts. It is currently practiced in schools, community groups, and along the entire continuum of the justice process, whether as an alternative to incarceration, education program in prisons or for re-entry. It is used by social workers, students, justice advocates, professors, school teachers, psychologists, community activists, and others in the U.S. and around the globe, most notably in South Africa and New Zealand. This session is a continuation of the morning keynote panel. In the first half of the session, Sonya Shah will offer a deeper overview of restorative justice — its history, current applications and evidence-based successes and continue to explore the most critical questions emerging in the field of restorative justice. In the second part of this session, Gary Malachi Scott will engage the group in a circle process — utilizing the heart of a restorative justice practices.
"A crippled politics of access and engagement …. yearning for an “elsewhen” - in which disability is understood ….. as political, as valuable as integral. (Kafer presents) … a hybrid political/relational model …..mak(ing) room for people to acknowledge – even mourn – a change in form or function while also acknowledging that those changes can not be understood apart from the context in which they occur. …. allow(ing) for important questions about healthcare and social justice (Kafer, 2013, pp. 3-6)." In this workshop we will talk about relational, political, existential, & practical issues clients face living with physical disabilities & chronic illnesses. We will explore how the above quote from Kafer challenges those with and without disabilities to engage this issue. Presenter will encourage participants to draw on their wisdom in this discussion. Reference: Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, queer, crip. Indiana University Press.