TRANS PEOPLE AND REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE IN PORTUGAL: A DISCURSIVE ANALYSIS OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE

Supervisor/s: Cecilia MacDowell Santos and Rita Alcaire

Doctoral Programme: Human Rights in Contemporary Societies

In 2018, the Portuguese parliament legally recognized self-identification processes, no longer requiring proof of clinical diagnosis or body modification procedures to change a person's gender identity or first name in official documents. Despite the progress that the Gender Self-Determination Law ushered in, trans people continue to face reproductive oppression through symbolic sterilization and lack of access to reproductive health. Reflecting on that, this thesis asks the following question: What are the current discourses of trans people on their access to reproductive health and their reproductive choices? Based on a transfeminist critical analysis and reproductive justice framework, this research aims to verify the access to reproductive health of trans people in Portugal, analyzing the existing discourses of transgender people's reproductive choices in the country since the Gender Self-Determination Law until 2023. Using Photovoice, an arts-based method, this participatory action research will focus on the experiences and choices of trans people while accessing reproductive health and making reproductive choices. I seek to understand their discourses regarding their access to reproductive health and reproductive choices after the enactment of the 2018 legislation. Furthermore, I will conduct archival research on healthcare guidelines and legislation, from 2018 to 2023, about gender identity and reproduction to analyze the normative discourse on trans people's reproductive health in Portugal. I want to problematize the persistence of the medico-legal paradigm by asking how reproductive justice can contribute or not to reformulate these norms and to account, in a more comprehensive way, for transgender people's access to reproductive health.