argument that would ensure reproductive justice for all who are able to bear children , regardless of gender identity .
Introduction
The discussion of reproductive justice is one of the most prominent in feminist philosophy . At the forefront is the debate on the permissibility of abortion . With the US Supreme Court ending the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 by overruling Roe v . Wade 1 , abortion remains a contemporary and controversial topic . Philosophers have , over time , considered arguments from the rights of the foetus , asking questions such as : when would a foetus become a person ? It follows that , because the killing of a human person is prohibited , the killing of a foetus should therefore also be prohibited . 2 Conversely , there are also arguments considering the rights and autonomy of the gestating woman . These arguments state that a woman has the right to consciously decide what to do with her own body and “ antiabortion policies simply interfere in an impermissible way with the pregnant woman ’ s autonomy .” 3 Perhaps one of the most influential analogies to fit in with arguments of this kind is Judith Jarvis Thomson ’ s Violinist 4 , first published in 1971 . We are invited to imagine being kidnapped and waking up plugged into a violinist who is using our kidneys to keep himself alive . If we unplug the violinist , he will die . Thomson uses this analogy to conclude that no one has the right to use another ’ s body to keep themselves alive , including unborn babies . While these respective defences are popular , Sally Markowitz takes a different approach and proposes the Gender Based Defence . This argument will be the focal point of this essay as I set out to show it does not guarantee reproductive justice for all who are able to gestate , such as transmen , non-binary and genderfluid individuals ( moving forward , I will refer to this group as gender minorities , except when specific distinctions are necessary ).
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