Young pregnant women and public health: introducing a critical reparative justice/care approach using South African case studies

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we outline a critical reparative justice/care approach to adolescent reproductive health as an alternative to the standard public health response to ‘teenage pregnancy’. Joining an increasing body of critical scholarship that calls for nuance in understanding reproduction amongst young people, we draw, in this paper, on data generated from an ethnographic study conducted in antenatal care units in an Eastern Cape township in South Africa. To illustrate the approach we propose, we home in on five case studies that highlight the variability of young women’s lives, the multiple injustices they experience, and the agency they demonstrate in negotiating their way through pregnancy and birth. Injustices evident in these cases centre on sexual violence, rape myths, education system failures, health system failures, shaming and stigmatising practices, socio-economic precariousness, absent male partners, and denial of services. We outline how the reparative justice approach that highlights repair and support for social and health injustices at the individual and collective level as well as at the material and symbolic level may be taken up to ensure reproductive justice for young pregnant women.

KEYWORDS:

• Pregnancy
• teenagers
• adolescents
• public health
• reproductive justice
• reparative justice
• antenatal care

Acknowledgements

We thank the young women who participated in this research, and trusted Tracey with their stories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is based on research supported by the South African Research Chairs initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa grant number 87582 and the Andrew W Mellon Foundation (grant number: 11100695)