Reproductive (In)Justice in the Pacific Islands: Studies on Abortion and Infanticide

From the 1840s onwards, as part of their colonising project, colonial administrators, missionaries and their wives worked to construct and enforce the gendered conduct and presentation of Pacific women to conform to ideals of the modest, selfless Christian wife, mother, and homemaker. These patriarchal-colonial interventions circumscribed Pacific women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy through various programs, educational initiatives, policies, and laws. Existing research on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) from the Pacific islands suggests communities from this vast region continue to face challenges to their SRHR, including through restrictive laws regarding abortion. There is little contemporary research on abortion and infanticide in the Pacific islands, and the broader injustices connected to women’s rejection of, or failures in meeting prescribed gender-motherhood ideals. In this thesis, I aim to investigate (a) the ways in which gender and motherhood continue to be constructed by powerful institutions in the Pacific islands; (b) how these constructions contribute to reproductive injustice for Pacific women; and (c) how women navigate these constructed norms and ideals in the context of their day-to-day lives. Reproductive justice theory informs the analysis in this thesis, requiring engagement with historical and contemporary injustices and oppressions, and consideration of how these shape individuals’ and communities’ sexual and reproductive lives. I respond to these aims through four qualitative studies: 1. Analysis of framings of abortion from opinion pieces, letters to the editor, and news articles published in mainstream news media outlets from Pacific countries. 2. Analysis of the construction of women in court cases from Pacific countries involving the crimes of infanticide and concealing the birth of a dead infant. 3. Analysis of illegal abortion court cases from Pacific countries, including how women and abortion are constructed by courts. 4. A qualitative study of the ...