Critical reflection essay. Social Sciences Essay.

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Reflection Essay
Introduction
Since the 1840s, several feminist movements have advocated for reforms related to women’s reproductive rights and justice. In Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court granted women the liberty to engage in abortion without restrictions. However, some states have come up with laws that prohibit abortion. On the other hand, C-section has been medicalized across the US as an alternative to normal childbirth despite its negative consequences. FGM has also become a medical problem despite its adverse effects on women’s health. Indeed, women, especially those from developed countries, enjoy more reproductive rights. However, the medicalization of their reproductive health and political tides undermine these reforms. Based on class readings, this paper reflects on women's health and reproductive Justice.
Reproductive sovereignty is significant to women's health because childbearing takes place in their bodies and they also take primary responsibility for child-rearing. However, medicalization has been used to commercialize some aspects of women health. For instance, menstruation, menopause, women’s mental health issues, and childbirth are all perceived as medical problems. In the case of childbirth, rather than encouraging women to give birth naturally, doctors persuade them to seek other options. As a result, “in the US, over 30% of women deliver via C-section” (L07 Lecture). The C-section rate in the US is three times than what is recommended by the World Health Organization. Medicalization of women’s reproductive health has also extended to practices that were once perceived as illegal. For instance, the health consequences of FGM practices are well documented. The effects include keloid scar formation, painful sexual intercourse, complications during childbirth, and development of abscesses and cysts. Nevertheless, the campaign against FGM has turned into a health approach that medicalizes FGM both at the demand and supply side (Kimani and Shell-Duncan, p 27).
Furthermore, women reproductive rights cannot be discussed without mentioning abortion. Abortion is closely connected to women to the point that “when people think about reproductive rights, we tend to think about just one aspect of these rights, abortion, yet reproductive rights are much broader than abortion” (L07 Lecture). Indeed, other reproductive rights matter but the significance of abortion cannot be underestimated. Policies regulation abortions are enacted with the aim of attaching certain rights to the embryo or fetus. Although, the majority of these laws focus on protecting life after conception, they lack judicial clarity. The complex nature of abortion was witnessed in Tennessee when the Supreme Court ruled that the pre-embryo should be accorded greater respect due to its potential to become a person but it should not be treated as a person because it has not yet become a person (Purvis, 335). Due to the ambiguity of the laws regulating abortion, some states medical officers threaten women before performing the abortion procedure. The threats are aimed at coercing the women to keep the unborn. Such threats are a serious attack on women’s...