Beyond Individual Choice: Reproductive Autonomy as a Social Construction

Reproductive autonomy is often treated in the literature as an individual right linked to the freedom to choose regarding reproduction and sexuality. However, this liberal conception, centered on isolated agency, proves insufficient to explain the structural barriers that condition real decision-making possibilities. This article proposes a theoretical redefinition of reproductive autonomy, conceiving it as a political, relational, and intersectional right, historically situated and shaped by inequalities of gender, race, class, and territory. More than an abstract prerogative, it is a substantive capability that depends on the articulation of material conditions, access to information, protection against coercion, and social recognition.

The proposal builds on the feminist critique of the individualist paradigm, incorporating elements from the capabilities approach (Sen, 2008) and reproductive justice theory (Ross & Solinger, 2017). Thus, reproductive autonomy is defined as the right of all people to make free, informed, and safe decisions about their reproductive lives, including whether, when, with whom, and under what conditions they will have children, with effective access to resources, technologies, and health services, and free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. This definition emphasizes that autonomy is not an isolated attribute but a social construction that requires institutional arrangements capable of converting formal rights into real functionings.

The article argues that restrictions on reproductive autonomy constitute a specific form of structural violence, operating as a technology of demographic control and reproduction of patriarchal, racial, and economic hierarchies. This violence manifests at multiple levels: interpersonal (marital coercion, contraceptive sabotage), institutional (neglect in access to safe abortion, selective judicialization), and structural (eugenic policies, territorial inequality). By analyzing these dimensions, it is argued that reproductive autonomy should be understood as a strategic axis for promoting gender equity and social justice.

Reproductive autonomy must be understood as a multidimensional social construction, articulated through five interdependent axes: informed freedom, ensuring access to qualified knowledge for conscious decisions; protection against coercion, guaranteeing effective power over contraception and sexual relations; institutional conditions, converting formal rights into substantive practices; intersectional justice, incorporating structural inequalities of gender, race, and territory; and resistance to oppressive systems, expressed in the capacity to challenge patriarchal and racist norms. This conception shifts autonomy from the individual plane to an ethical-political horizon, highlighting that its realization depends on transforming the symbolic and institutional structures that sustain gender violence.

By proposing this expanded definition, the article contributes to shifting the debate from the biomedical sphere to an ethical-political horizon, reaffirming that guaranteeing reproductive autonomy is not only about ensuring individual choices but about confronting the material and symbolic foundations that limit bodily self-determination. This perspective offers a theoretical framework for future research and for the formulation of public policies oriented toward reproductive justice, in line with international human rights commitments and the goals of SDG 5.