After Sex

What is justice in terms of human reproduction and care? Reproductive justice is a term coined by the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice in 1994 in Chicago. Seeking to progress beyond historical feminist approaches to reproductive rights, focussed on individual choice and legal rights, reproductive justice demands full bodily autonomy and social and economic change. As the twenty-first century unfolds, regressive political and legal decisions are revoking people’s ability to terminate a pregnancy on their terms. The U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 has reverberated around the world.

In this time of change, what can an expansive reproductive justice look like? AFTER SEX takes an international and historical approach to bring together essential feminist and queer writings on the subject of reproduction, from the fight for abortion to hormonal therapy. Personal and political perspectives from the mid-twentieth century to the present include trans writers on social reproduction, poetry by Black feminist and arguments for the right to remain child-free. AFTER SEX both looks to the horizons of possibility and highlights the architectural connections between reproductive justice and subsidised childcare, abortion, contraceptives, universal access to healthcare and paid parental leave. Across fiction or nonfiction, this anthology argues for a politics of solidarity that assumes the full distribution of resources to build a world where people can live their lives with agency.

Silver Press