The Political Geographies of Pregnancy (review)

The Human Genome Project has announced it has sequenced the human genetic structure, which includes about 35,000 genes. In the scientific community this accomplishment is considered a major advance that could lead to early drug treatments and prevention of diseases. But from social and economic perspectives the tremendous resources poured into this project raise complex issues that Laura R. Woliver addresses in The Political Geographies of Pregnancy.

Laura Woliver challenges the new reproductive technologies' culture as not having taken into account women's voices and experiences. The result has been a lessening of women's control over their bodies. From a feminist perspective the voices of people affected by political decisions and policies need to be heard and integrated into decision making. These technologies have also been developed within the context of an individualistic culture rather than in one that emphasizes care. Woliver calls for the integration of dependency and nurturing as we consider changing technologies that affect reproduction.

The place to start in a review of The Political Geographies of Pregnancy is to describe what Laura Woliver means by the "political" and what she means by the "geographies of pregnancy." By geographies she means the places pregnancies occur. Of course, pregnancies take place in women's bodies, but modern reproductive technologies, Woliver argues, have taken control away from women. Thus others are making authoritative decisions that affect women and their bodies, and not always with the concerns of women in the forefront of research efforts.

"The title of my book attempts to draw our attention back to where pregnancy takes place: within women's bodies. We can discuss women's bodies as geographical spaces observed, mapped, dissected, and researched by others. Laws, policies, and medical practices, however, layer state political control over women's reproductive power. Herein lies a power shift in the geographies of pregnancy, with decision making concerning reproduction moving toward professionals, policymakers, genetic counselors, and others and away from women as agents of their bodies, themselves. The maps and boundaries of women's reproductive powers are being redrawn" (26). The voices and experiences of women are not included in policymaking, legal theory, and practice.

Woliver's research on these issues included interviews, participant observation, and analysis of texts. She conducted interviews with attorneys, lobbyists, interest group directors, and activist leaders in the pro-life and pro-choice movements and participated in a week-long convention of the Human Genome Project's Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Human Genome Research program. "These observations, fieldwork, interviews, and readings led me to see the interconnected nature of abortion, adoption, surrogacy, the new reproductive technologies, the mapping of the human genome and police monitoring of pregnant women" (5). Woliver has chapters on each of these topics in which she integrates the experiential and theoretical writings of others to make the case for a different perspective on the effect of modern technologies on pregnancy. She shows how the emphasis on genetic research may be leading us in cruel directions.

What is the problem with new reproductive technologies and how do they take agency away from women? The problem, according to Woliver, is that these technologies present women with the wrong kinds of choices. The ability to conceive the perfect child and the pressure not to conceive an imperfect child become immense. Issues are framed in terms of genes rather than of the environment. Health and welfare become starkly individualized, especially in the Human Genome Project. The Human Genome Project has caused a conceptual shift in how we deal with medical and social problems. "A genetic focus shifts our efforts away from the environment, poverty, and lack of access to health care and centers our efforts on genes" (50). We become our genes and not part of a community of individuals.

What is not considered are the needs of the poor or of different races and what these decisions can do to women. Rather than freeing women, they become more controlled. A feminist practice, on the other hand...