This legal subject which is not one
Luce Irigaray, reproductive justice, and a jurisprudence of sexual difference
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.27651Keywords:
reproductive justice, abortion, sexual difference, law, generationAbstract
This article explores the evolving rhetoric of the anti-abortion movement in the United States, examining its shift from religious to pseudo-scientific and rights-based arguments. The study critiques both anti-abortion and pro-choice movements for relying on a flawed, sexually neutral philosophical framework that fails to consider sexual difference. Jolissaint highlights the limitations of Roe v. Wade and subsequent legal battles. Drawing on Luce Irigaray’s philosophy, which emphasizes the importance of sexual difference and criticizes the liberal feminist pursuit of equality, the article proposes a new approach to thinking about abortion rights and reproductive justice. This approach, informed by Irigaray’s concept of ‘sexuate rights’ and the reproductive justice framework, as developed by Loretta Ross and Rebecca Todd Peters, challenges the masculine-neutral legal subject and advocates for a broader understanding of rights that contemplates generation and sexual difference.
The study traces the historical regulation of abortion in the United States, noting how early Christian and legal perspectives on abortion were more permissive until the quickening. It discusses the role of eugenics and patriarchal ideology in shaping restrictive abortion laws, and the professional and racial motivations behind these laws. Jolissaint also examines how modern anti-abortion legislation, such as heartbeat bills, continues to co-opt civil rights language to restrict abortion access. The article concludes by advocating for a legal and ethical framework that incorporates the reproductive justice framework and Irigaray’s philosophy, concluding that the question of how/when/whether a pregnant woman/person may terminate a pregnancy is not one for the law or even theologians to decide but, rather, one the pregnant woman/person must make as a living, breathing person with projects and work of her/their own.
References
Coughlin, C. N., and King, N. M. P. (2023) Dobbs, the intrusive state, and the future of solidarity. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 32(3): 344–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963180122000792
Dinner, D. (2023) Fineman speaks to Dobbs. Texas A&M Law Review 10(4): 729–41. https://doi.org/10.37419/LR.V10.I4.11
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) Opinion of Justice Alito. 142 S. Ct. 2228.
Evans, D., and Narasimhan, S. (2020) A narrative analysis of anti-abortion testimony and legislative debate related to Georgia’s ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion ban. Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters 28(1): 1686201. https://doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2019.1686201
Gmirkin, R. E. (2022) Plato’s Timaeus and the Biblical Creation Accounts: Cosmic Monotheism and Terrestrial Polytheism in the Primordial History. Copenhagen International Seminar. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003181774
Goodwin, M. (2020) Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139343244
Goodwin, M. (2022) No, Justice Alito, reproductive justice is in the Constitution. New York Times, June 26. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/26/opinion/justice-alito-reproductive-justice-constitution-abortion.html.
Grosz, E. (1999) Psychoanalysis and the body. In J. Price and M. Shildrick (eds) Feminist Theory and the Body 269–70. New York: Routledge.
Guttmacher Institute (2024) State Policies in Brief. Retrieved May 24, 2024, from https://states.guttmacher.org/policies
Holmes, E. A. (2013) The gift of breath: towards a maternal pneumonology. In L. Škof and E. A. Holmes (eds) Breathing with Luce Irigaray. New York: Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472547965.ch-003
Hom, S. L. (2013) Between races and generations: materializing race and kinship in Moraga and Irigaray. Hypatia 28(3): 419–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2012.01271.x
Irigaray, L. (1985a) Speculum of the Other Woman (trans. G. Gill). Ithaca: State University of New York Press.
Irigaray, L. (1985b) This Sex Which is Not One (trans. C. Porter with C. Burke). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Irigaray, L. (1991) The Irigaray Reader (ed. M. Whitford). Malden: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
Irigaray, L. (1993a) An Ethics of Sexual Difference (trans. C. Burke and G. Gill). Ithaca: State University of New York Press.
Irigaray, L. (1993b) Je, Tu, Nous: Towards a Culture of Difference (trans. A. Martin). New York: Routledge.
Irigaray, L. (1996) I Love to You: Sketch for a Felicity Within History (trans. A. Martin). New York: Routledge.
Irigaray, L. (2001) Democracy Begins Between Two (trans. K. Anderson). New York: Routledge.
Irigaray, L. (2020) How could we achieve women’s liberation? In G. Schwab (ed.) Thinking Life with Luce Irigaray 25–36. Albany: State University of New York Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438477831-003
Irigaray, L., and Marder, M. (2016) Through Vegetal Being: Two Philosophical Perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press.
Jolissaint, J. (2005) Placing Irigaray: the sensible transcendental in Speculum of the Other Woman. Crossings: A Counter-Disciplinary Journal of Philosophical, Cultural, Historical, and Literary Studies 7: 71–90.
Jolissaint, J. (2007) Sacred doorways: tracing the body in Plato’s Timaeus. Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 11(2): 333–52. https://doi.org/10.5840/epoche200711216
Peters, R. T. (2018) Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice. Boston: Beacon Press.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) 505 U.S. 833.
Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) (2023) Abortion Views in all 50 States: Findings from PRRI’s 2023 American Values Atlas. Washington, D.C.: PRRI. https://www.prri.org/research/abortion-views-in-all-50-states-findings-from-prris-2023-american-values-atlas
Rawlinson, M. (2016) Just Life: Bioethics and the Future of Sexual Difference. New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/rawl17174
Reed, E. (2023) Opinion: Overturning Roe Causes Crisis for Women. We're Here to Help.
State Affairs Georgia, May 10, 2023. https://stateaffairs.com/georgia/opinion/roe-v-wade-abortion-crisis-women-elizabeth-reed
Roberts, L. (2019) Irigaray and Politics: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474422833
Roe v. Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113.
Ross, L. J., Roberts, L., Derkas, E., Peoples, W., and Bridgewater Toure, P. (2017) Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique. New York: Feminist Press.
Russell, Y. (2022) Rethinking feminist resistance to rape: Irigaray and erotic transformation. In R. C. Kim, Y. Russell, and B. Sharp (eds) Horizons of Difference: Rethinking Space, Place, and Identity with Irigaray. New York: State University of New York Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438488479-005
Schwab, G. (1996) Women and the law in Irigarayan theory. Metaphilosophy Special Issue: Contributions and Controversy in Feminist Philosophy 27(1–2): 146–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9973.1996.tb00872.x
Ziegler, M. (2022) Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment. New Haven: Yale University Press.
