Assisted reproductive technologies: Distinguishing reproductive justice concerns from the anti-choice rhetoric of the Religious Right

As assisted reproductive and genetic technologies become more widely available, women's health advocates have begun to raise questions about potential threats to the health and safety of women using these technologies. Unfortunately, when reproductive justice advocates do this, we sometimes appear to be on the same anti-biotechnology “side” as leaders of the Religious Right, who actually come from a very different “pro-life” position that seeks to grant “personhood” rights to the embryo.

Moreover, some conservative anti-choice organizations are cloaking their questioning of these new technologies in language more often associated with women's rights and social justice. For example, the ultraconservative Concerned Women for America organization states that it opposes biotechnology because it “is the most vulnerable — women and children — who will be used to benefit the powerful, the wealthy, the more politically connected.”

This presentation will discuss the challenges facing reproductive justice advocates in effectively questioning new biotechnologies without inadvertently lending support to anti-choice conservative religious organizations. The presentation will draw distinctions between women's health/social justice concerns and the anti-choice religious concerns articulated to date about such issues as embryonic stem cell research, egg donation, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and sex selective abortion. The presenter will conclude by providing examples of analysis, messages, framing and tactics that some progressive organizations are using to successfully raise concerns about women's health while maintaining distance from the anti-technology campaign of the Religious Right.