A Right to Health Case for Access to Affordable Procreative Assistance

This article contends that States have procedural and aspirational obligations towards the provision of affordable procreative assistance. I locate this obligation on a normative understanding of the human right to reproductive health that accounts for lived experiences of reproductive decision-making and involuntary childlessness. I argue that while involuntarily childlessness should not be viewed as a disease or pathology, there is nevertheless, a healthcare entitlement to procreative assistance as a means of furthering valued liberties and autonomies. Further, this article argues that involuntary childlessness arising from ‘social’ reasons is sufficiently similar to instances where it is caused by physiologically diagnosable infertility. Drawing on this, I make a case for parity in access for same sex couples, older women, single women, and seekers from underserved communities.