On the scales: Social justice and pluralism in reproductive tourism

February 4, 2011

The term “reproductive tourism” first surfaced in Canada in the late 1980s as that country carried out an exhaustive survey of public opinion under the Royal Commission headed by Dr. Patricia Baird. The coinage was used to refer to the prospect that unless the government passed comprehensive national laws, women and couples unable to obtain treatments in their own province would seek them out in another. By 1999, Canadians were using it to talk about women who, when refused high risk procedures there, went to the U.S. instead. Today, borders are being crossed throughout the EU, where member states have quite different codes, among different U.S. states, and internationally. (CGS)