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CORTH Conversation: Reproductive freedom as marronage: illegal abortion and the pursuit of safety in Lagos Stat
Abortion law, rights and practice present a number of conflicts and contradictions in the context of Nigeria. Having ratified the Maputo Protocol, Nigeria subscribes to the groundbreaking regional right to abortion, yet domestic and state law remain restrictive, proscribing abortion in almost all circumstances and stipulating harsh penalties for those who fall foul. This, however, is not reflected in on-the-ground realities, which are far more complex: across all planes of this medically plural context, abortion is prevalent. The safety of these procedures, however, is contingent on circumstance, often resulting in devastating outcomes. Rights, here, remain on paper.
In the aftermath of rights critique, I seek to theorise how locally-acted, embodied modes of resistance are securing both reproductive freedom and safety in Lagos State. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2023, I find that while illegal abortions were historically (and oftentimes still are) unsafe, medication abortion represents a revolution in safety, and this presents just one of the methods harnessed by both the formal and informal networks who seek to create pathways to accessible reproductive healthcare. To do this I develop a concept of reproductive freedom as marronage, contending that in legally and socially restrictive contexts, reproductive freedom may be found not in the heralded landscapes of rights or justice, nor the recognised infrastructure of mainstream medicine, but the murky (il)legality of acts of reproductive resistance which make maroons of those who refuse to comply with reproductive norms.
Laurenne Ajayi is a CHASE-funded doctoral researcher in the School of Law (Sussex). Her research is focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights in West Africa, considering the impact (or lack thereof) of the Maputo Protocol's radical right to abortion and the ways in which reproductive freedom might be reconceived and secured.
This is a hybrid event. We would love for you to join us in-person but if that is not possible then you can participate online instead. Please email corth@sussex.ac.uk for the Zoom details.